Necessity has not been cut."
And I looked and saw in her eyes the terrible patience of the centuries;
the ground was wet with her tears, and her nostrils blew up the sand.
And I said, "Has she ever tried to move?"
And he said, "Sometimes a limb has quivered. But she is wise; she knows
she cannot rise with the burden on her."
And I said, "Why does not he who stands by her leave her and go on?"
And he said, "He cannot. Look--"
And I saw a broad band passing along the ground from one to the other, and
it bound them together.
He said, "While she lies there he must stand and look across the desert."
And I said, "Does he know why he cannot move?"
And he said, "No."
And I heard a sound of something cracking, and I looked, and I saw the band
that bound the burden on to her back broken asunder; and the burden rolled
on to the ground.
And I said, "What is this?"
And he said, "The Age-of-muscular-force is dead. The Age-of-nervous-force
has killed him with the knife he holds in his hand; and silently and
invisibly he has crept up to the
woman, and with that knife of Mechanical
Invention he has cut the band that bound the burden to her back. The
Inevitable Necessity it broken. She might rise now."
And I saw that she still lay motionless on the sand, with her eyes open and
her neck stretched out. And she seemed to look for something on the far-
off border of the desert that never came. And I wondered if she were awake
or asleep. And as I looked her body quivered, and a light came into her
eyes, like when a sunbeam breaks into a dark room.
I said, "What is it?"
He whispered "Hush! the thought has come to her, 'Might I not rise?'"
And I looked. And she raised her head from the sand, and I saw the dent
where her neck had lain so long. And she looked at the earth, and she
looked at the sky, and she looked at him who stood by her: but he looked
out across the desert.
And I saw her body quiver; and she pressed her front knees to the earth,
and veins stood out; and I cried; "She is going to rise!"
But only her sides heaved, and she lay still where she was.
