A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

happens to me. Something in the face _that stirs some old forgotten memory, no doubt. Or stirs the memory of our an- cestors whose ghosts are always peering through our eyes. Seeing this girl was like that, only far more so. I couldn’t see anything else—not even Helen. She had the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, or rather eyes of a curious deep violet. They were big and unusually wide apart, with long curling black lashes and slimly - penciled black eyebrows that almost met above her high-arched but delicately modeled nose. You felt, rather than saw, their color, Her forehead was broad, but whether it was low I could not tell, for it was coifed with braids of palest gold, curled up all over her head, and they were so fine and silken that the light in the hall shining through them made a queer silver-gilt aureole around her head. Her mouth was a bit large, but beauti- fully-formed and daintily sensuous. Her skin was a miracle, white, but vital—as though moon fires shone be- hind it. She was tall, almost as I, exquisitely curved. Her head and face and shoulders cane like a lily out of the calyx of a shimmering sea-green “gown. She was perfection—and I felt a swift hatred against her, understanding, as the pulse of it passed, how one could slash a painting that was a masterpiece of beauty, or take a hammer and destroy a statue that was another such masterpiece —if it evoked such hatred as that which I, for that fleeting moment, felt. Then I thought: Do I hate you—or do I fear you? It was all, mind you, in a breath. Helen was moving by me, hand out- stretched. There was no confusion about _~ Helen. Our embrace that had been in- __ terrupted might have been a simple hand- ote _ shake. She said, smiling and gracious. “IT am Helen Bennett. Dr. Lowell, asked me to receive you. You are Dr. _ de Keradel, aren’t you?” a J LOOKED at the man who was bend- 4 ing over her hand, kissing it. He straightened, and I felt a queer shock of -bewil t. Bill had said I was to JL WW Li o ae * -—e ad oy 8 CREEP, SHADOW! meet Dr. de Keradel and his daughter. But this man looked no older than the girl—if she was his daughter. True, the — silver in the gold of his hair was a little paler; true, the blue of his eyes had not — and there were little ends of hair that the violet-purple of hers. . . . I thought: But neither of them has any age! And on top of that I thought rather = savagely: What the hell’s the matter with me anyway? | The man said: an “IT am Dr. de Keradel. And this is my daughter.” The girl—or woman—seemed now to be regarding both Helen and me with — Dr. de Keradel said faint amusement. 1 with, I thought, curious and carefully pointed precision: “The Demoiselle Dahut d’Ys,” he hesi- tated, then finished—“de Keradel.” Helen said: “And this is Dr. Alan Caranac.” I was looking at the girl—or woman. The name of Dahut d’Ys fingered half- forgotten chords of memory. And as- ) Helen named me, I saw the violet eyes dilate, become enormous, the straight brows contract until they met above the nose in a slender bar. I felt the glance of her eyes strike and encompass me. She seemed to be seeing me for the first time. And in her eyes was something threat-— ening—possessive. Her body tensed. She said, in a low whisper and as though to herself : “Alain de Caranac. .. . She glanced from me to Helen. There was calculation in that glance, appraisal. Contemptuous indifference, too—if I read +. it right. A queen might so have looked upon some serving wench who had dared to lift eyes to her lover and so reveal her heart.” Whether I read the glance correctly or not, Helen evidently got something of the same thought. She turned to me and said sweetly: “Darling, I’m ashamed of | you. Wake up!” : With the side of her little high-heeled slipper she gave me a surreptitious and = vigorous kick on the shin. Just then Bill came in, and with him a dignified, white-haired gentleman I knew must be Dr. Lowell. I don’t know when I had ever been so glad to see Bill. Eomichboo cS 19 + > é%) 4 te aw ox ate | A Te ee ae * ry a) > , 7 ry ; e * ‘ ' .. th 3 "ie SSR eer AT, We ' : do's 1 He Tes Wists hee ve Way Vv, et mee ee RT +4,’ 4 we \ ‘Tae = | he i) : ie ‘a } 7 ba ALOR ea ye ery bv th ¥) edt fir Wg SOE AU Mea 5 He % AWS ai. y ' BA or 4 , , * ny ' Y : ey ie AS. tid et, ae PP Paige CPT ET er Tm, LR RE Pa be AV gt : ; vow ' i pasar} 7 4 4 wat la > je . at <4 = “el ~al at con