Pygmalion's Spectacles Read online

suddenly erect, pallid as an ivory carving. "Leuconcalls!" she said, and darted away. Dan followed along the pebbled path,but her speed was beyond his powers; at the portal he found only theGrey Weaver standing cold and stern. He raised his hand as Dan appeared.

  "Your time is short," he said. "Go, thinking of the havoc you havedone."

  "Where's Galatea?" gasped Dan.

  "I have sent her away." The old man blocked the entrance; for a momentDan would have struck him aside, but something withheld him. He staredwildly about the meadow--there! A flash of silver beyond the river, atthe edge of the forest. He turned and raced toward it, while motionlessand cold the Grey Weaver watched him go.

  "Galatea!" he called. "Galatea!"

  He was over the river now, on the forest bank, running through columnedvistas that whirled about him like mist. The world had gone cloudy; fineflakes danced like snow before his eyes; Paracosma was dissolving aroundhim. Through the chaos he fancied a glimpse of the girl, but closerapproach left him still voicing his hopeless cry of "Galatea!"

  After an endless time, he paused; something familiar about the spotstruck him, and just as the red sun edged above him, he recognized theplace--the very point at which he had entered Paracosma! A sense offutility overwhelmed him as for a moment he gazed at an unbelievableapparition--a dark window hung in midair before him through which glowedrows of electric lights. Ludwig's window!

  It vanished. But the trees writhed and the sky darkened, and he swayeddizzily in turmoil. He realized suddenly that he was no longer standing,but sitting in the midst of the crazy glade, and his hands clutchedsomething smooth and hard--the arms of that miserable hotel chair. Thenat last he saw her, close before him--Galatea, with sorrow-strickenfeatures, her tear-filled eyes on his. He made a terrific effort torise, stood erect, and fell sprawling in a blaze of coruscating lights.

  He struggled to his knees; walls--Ludwig's room--encompassed him; hemust have slipped from the chair. The magic spectacles lay before him,one lens splintered and spilling a fluid no longer water-clear, butwhite as milk.

  "God!" he muttered. He felt shaken, sick, exhausted, with a bitter senseof bereavement, and his head ached fiercely. The room was drab,disgusting; he wanted to get out of it. He glanced automatically at hiswatch: four o'clock--he must have sat here nearly five hours. For thefirst time he noticed Ludwig's absence; he was glad of it and walkeddully out of the door to an automatic elevator. There was no responseto his ring; someone was using the thing. He walked three flights to thestreet and back to his own room.

  In love with a vision! Worse--in love with a girl who had never lived,in a fantastic Utopia that was literally nowhere! He threw himself onhis bed with a groan that was half a sob.

  He saw finally the implication of the name Galatea. Galatea--Pygmalion'sstatue, given life by Venus in the ancient Grecian myth. But _his_Galatea, warm and lovely and vital, must remain forever without the giftof life, since he was neither Pygmalion nor God.

  * * * * *

  He woke late in the morning, staring uncomprehendingly about for thefountain and pool of Paracosma. Slow comprehension dawned; howmuch--_how much_--of last night's experience had been real? How much wasthe product of alcohol? Or had old Ludwig been right, and was there nodifference between reality and dream?

  He changed his rumpled attire and wandered despondently to the street.He found Ludwig's hotel at last; inquiry revealed that the diminutiveprofessor had checked out, leaving no forwarding address.

  What of it? Even Ludwig couldn't give what he sought, a living Galatea.Dan was glad that he had disappeared; he hated the little professor.Professor? Hypnotists called themselves "professors." He dragged througha weary day and then a sleepless night back to Chicago.

  It was mid-winter when he saw a suggestively tiny figure ahead of him inthe Loop. Ludwig! Yet what use to hail him? His cry was automatic."Professor Ludwig!"

  The elfin figure turned, recognized him, smiled. They stepped into theshelter of a building.

  "I'm sorry about your machine, Professor. I'd be glad to pay for thedamage."

  "_Ach_, that was nothing--a cracked glass. But you--have you been ill?You look much the worse."

  "It's nothing," said Dan. "Your show was marvelous,Professor--marvelous! I'd have told you so, but you were gone when itended."

  Ludwig shrugged. "I went to the lobby for a cigar. Five hours with a waxdummy, you know!"

  "It was marvelous!" repeated Dan.

  "So real?" smiled the other. "Only because you co-operated, then. Ittakes self-hypnosis."

  "It was real, all right," agreed Dan glumly. "I don't understandit--that strange beautiful country."

  "The trees were club-mosses enlarged by a lens," said Ludwig. "All wastrick photography, but stereoscopic, as I told you--three dimensional.The fruits were rubber; the house is a summer building on ourcampus--Northern University. And the voice was mine; you didn't speak atall, except your name at the first, and I left a blank for that. Iplayed your part, you see; I went around with the photographic apparatusstrapped on my head, to keep the viewpoint always that of the observer.See?" He grinned wryly. "Luckily I'm rather short, or you'd have seemeda giant."

  "Wait a minute!" said Dan, his mind whirling. "You say you played mypart. Then Galatea--is _she_ real too?"

  "Tea's real enough," said the Professor. "My niece, a senior atNorthern, and likes dramatics. She helped me out with the thing. Why?Want to meet her?"

  Dan answered vaguely, happily. An ache had vanished; a pain was eased.Paracosma was attainable at last!

 
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