Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/11

 METROPOLIS Nothing could help him-nothingl In an agonising blissful omnipresence stood, before his vision the one, one countenance; the austere countenance of the virgin, the sweet countenance of the mother. . A voice spoke: «Look, these are your brothers," And the glory of the heavens was nothing, and the intoxication of work was nothing. And the conHagration which wiped out the sea could not wipe out the soft voice of the girl: "Look, these are your brothers'" My God, my God0000.0

With a painful, violent jerk, Freder turned around and walked up to his machine. Something like deliverance passed across his face as he considered this. shining creation, waiting only for him, of which there was not a steel link, not a rivet, not a spring which he had not calculated and created. The creature was not large, appearing still more fragile by reason of the huge room and flood of sunlight in which it stood. But the soft lustre of its metal and the proud swing with which the foremost body seemed to raise itself to leap, even when not in'motion, gave :it something of the fair god-

liness of a faultlessly beautiful animal, which is quite fearless, because it knows itself to be invincible. Freder caressed his creation. He pressed his head gently against the machine. With ineffable affection he felt its cool, flexible members. "To-night," he said, "I shall be with you. I shall be entirely enwrapped by you, I shall pour out my life into you and shall fathom whether or not I can bring you to life. I shall, perhaps, feel your throb and the commencement of movement in your controlled body. I shall, perhaps, feel the giddiness with which you throw YOUIself out into your boundless element, carrying me-me, the man who made-through the huge sea of midnight. The seven stars will be above us and the sad beauty of the moon. Mount Everest will remain, 16