A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

THE NINTH LIFE 47 stood up—“‘there is a difference. We will go back to the drawing room, and Saleh will bring us coffee there.” “IT must go, very soon,” he said, and looked at the watch again. The hands, he saw, had moved on five minutes, and the seconds hand was moving normally. He said, irritably: “What ts the time?” “Your watch, and the clock there, tell it,” she answered. | And the clock, he saw, indicated twenty minutes past six. Kefra said, coolly: “Will you have your coffee here alone?” He opened the door for her and fol- lowed her to the drawing room, where, as when he had left it, there was no light but that of the fire. ‘She faced him by it, and he saw her face clearly. She said: “There is light enough, unless you wish for more.” 3 “It is as you wish,” he answered. “Yes —light enough.” She laughed, softly. ‘Tell me—what does a woman ask of a man?” she de- manded. He shrugged again, but differently. “The man who can tell that isn’t born, and never will be,’’ he answered emphati- cally. “No? Then I will tell you. Strength, and the insight that makes for identity of desire. That even in yielding to her will he shall: be master of her, not her subject. That even in his tenderness she shall sense dominance, and in giving as a king gives he shall take as from a slave. Yet, having regard for her need, he shall give to her only as long as he had need of her, and in giving shall demand all.” She went on quite coolly: “Yes, you are right,” and took off Tony’s engage- ment ring—the only one she had been TO-FIT G cu TO-FIT HOMES CUT BYILDING COSTS SS — ————— a ——— 4 = = —_ 5 = aK = ll a we we oe ver Ta ce es a | } " ; if t | H ‘ ¥ ‘ { ++} i t } : rial + a a INTERNATIONAL MILL AND TIMBER CO. DEPT. PF 450, BAY CITY, MICHIGAN. wearing—to lay it on the high mantel. “You mean that?” he asked incredu- lously. ‘‘T will him not to desire me,” she said with quiet intensity. “Then why on earth did you ever will the contrary ?”’ : “Because it was little to me whom I chose,’ she answered. “I said, in a little time | shall be free of that evil covenant, as I have been free since the day I first met you. I should have waited a little longer, I know now, but I knew the free- dom must be very near, and that it would set me back in time, to live and grow old and pass as do all others, the long bond- age at an end. I said, I will choose mea man that I may have his love when I am old. I said, he shall be a man of whom I am not ashamed, and more I will not ask, because I have only to will him to desire me, and he is bound to me—mine completely. I said, somewhere on the earth there may be a man who could give all that a woman asks, but I have not found him, and with that saying | chose this man, your friend. Now I will him not to desire me!” He drank a little coffee and put the cup on the mantel, close by the ring. Doggedly he held back another question. But she answered it: “Because it is your wish.” “Wil you leave my mind alone!” he | exclaimed harshly. She said: “No.” The hands of his watch pointed at half past six in the firelight. He said: “Now, I think, it is time to go.” “Tn time,” she said, “it is ninety min- utes since you entered this house. I set you with me outside time, because I ORDER NOW SAVE UP TO VE ——= PRiceD FROM $1885 up - Send 25¢ for NEW: = COLOR CATALOG (e(o) comicbooks