So I did see her again, and several times again. In fact, I suppose I occupied most of her time between the few literary courses she was taking, and little by little I began to see that in other respects besides the physical she was not so far from my ideal. Beneath her impudence was honesty, and frankness, and, despite herself, sweetness, so that even allowing for the head-start I’d had, I fell in love pretty hastily. And what’s more, I knew she was beginning to reciprocate.
That was the situation when I called for her one noon and took her over to van Manderpootz’s laboratory. We were to lunch with him at the University Club, but we found him occupied in directing some experiment in the big laboratory beyond his personal one, untangling some sort of mess that his staff had blundered into. So Denise and I wandered back into the smaller room, perfectly content to be alone together. I simply couldn’t feel hungry in her presence; just talking to her was enough of a substitute for food.
“I’m going to be a good writer,” she was saying musingly. “Some day, Dick, I’m going to be famous.”
Well, everyone knows how correct that prediction was. I agreed with her instantly.
She smiled. “You’re nice, Dick,” she said. “Very nice.”
“Very?”
“Very!” she said emphatically. Then her green eyes strayed over to the table that held the idealizator. “What crackbrained contraption of Uncle Haskel’s is that?” she asked.
I explained, rather inaccurately, I’m afraid, but no ordinary engineer can follow the ramifications of a van Manderpootz conception. Nevertheless, Denise caught the gist of it and her eyes glowed emerald fire.
“It’s fascinating!” she exclaimed. She rose and moved over to the table. “I’m going to try it.”
“Not without the professor, you won’t! It might be dangerous.”
That was the wrong thing to say. The green eyes glowed brighter as she cast me a whimsical glance. “But I am,” she said. “Dick, I’m going to—see my ideal man!” She laughed softly.
I was panicky. Suppose her ideal turned out tall and dark and powerful, instead of short and sandy-haired and a bit—well, chubby, as I am. “No!” I said vehemently. “I won’t let you!”
She laughed again. I suppose she read my consternation, for she said softly, “Don’t be silly, Dick.” She sat down, placed her face against the opening of the barrel, and commanded. “Turn it on.”
I couldn’t refuse her. I set the mirror whirling, then switched on the bank of tubes. Then immediately I stepped behind her, squinting into what was visible of the flashing mirror, where a face was forming, slowly—vaguely.
I thrilled. Surely the hair of the image was sandy. I even fancied now that I could trace a resemblance to my own features. Perhaps Denise sensed something similar, for she suddenly withdrew her eyes from the tube and looked up with a faintly embarrassed flush, a thing most unusual for her.
“Ideals are dull!” she said. “I want a real thrill. Do you know what I’m going to see? I’m going to visualize ideal horror. That’s what I’ll do. I’m going to see absolute horror!”
“Oh, no you’re not!” I gasped. “That’s a terribly dangerous idea.” Off in the other room I heard the voice of van Manderpootz, “Dixon!”
“Dangerous—bosh!” Denise retorted. “I’m a writer, Dick. All this means to me is material. It’s just experience, and I want it.”
Van Manderpootz again. “Dixon! Dixon! Come here.” I said, “Listen, Denise. I’ll be right back. Don’t try anything until I’m here—please!”
I dashed into the big laboratory. Van Manderpootz was facing a cowed group of assistants, quite apparently in extreme awe of the great man.
“Hah, Dixon!” he rasped. “Tell these fools what an Emmerich valve is, and why it won’t operate in a free electronic stream. Let ’em see that even an ordinary engineer knows that much.”
Well, an ordinary engineer doesn’t, but it happened that I did. Not that I’m particularly exceptional as an engineer, but I did happen to know that because a year or two before I’d done some work on the big tidal turbines up in Maine, where they have to use Emmerich valves to guard against electrical leakage from the tremendous potentials in their condensers. So I started explaining, and van Manderpootz kept interpolating sarcasms about his staff, and when I finally finished, I suppose I’d been in there about half an hour. And then—I remembered Denise!
I left van Manderpootz staring as I rushed back, and sure enough, there was the girl with her face pressed against the barrel, and her hands gripping the table edge. Her features were hidden, of course, but there was something about her strained position, her white knuckles—
“Denise!” I yelled. “Are you all right? Denise!”
She didn’t move. I stuck my face in between the mirror and the end of the barrel and peered up the tube at her visage, and what I saw left me all but stunned. Have you ever seen stark, mad, infinite terror on a human face? That was what I saw in Denise’s—inexpressible, unbearable horror, worse than the fear of death could ever be. Her green eyes were widened so that the whites showed around them; her perfect lips were contorted, her whole face strained into a mask of sheer terror.
I rushed for the switch, but in passing I caught a single glimpse of—of what showed in the mirror. Incredible! Obscene, terror-laden, horrifying things—there just aren’t words for them. There are no words.
Denise didn’t move as the tubes darkened. I raised her face from the barrel and when she glimpsed me she moved. She flung herself out of that chair and away, facing me with such mad terror that I halted.
“Denise!” I cried. “It’s just Dick. Look, Denise!”
But as I moved toward her, she uttered a choking scream, her eyes dulled, her knees gave, and she fainted. Whatever she had seen, it must have been appalling to the uttermost, for Denise was not the sort to faint.
It
