Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 3 (1926-09).djvu/127

 had come to the attention of a well-known German savant, Adolf Himmbeeren, in translated form, and he sent for me at the request of his confreres, who believed me better versed along occult lines than they.

“Professor Himmbeeren took me directly into the bosom of his family with the utmost hospitality, placing at my disposal all the splendid resources of his library and laboratory, of which I at once took full advantage. I found many books—in German, which rather retarded my reading, for with that language I was familiar only in its more colloquial terms—which opened vistas of weird and bizarre thought before my mental vision, and into these I delved, with the gracious assistance of the professor’s charming motherless child, a lovely blond girl, named—Gretel.”

Bessie breathed quicker, leaning against the table toward him, hazel eyes hungrily on his face, her strained attention plainly hanging on every word. The artist sat up in his chair, his brow slightly drawn as he regarded the doctor with hard scrutiny,

“Gretel,” repeated the doctor slowly. “Gretel Himmbeeren. She seemed just a lovely slip of an innocent girl, and imperceptibly I came to lean upon her quick, intuitive grasp of the esoteric subjects I was studying, for her command of English was superb. She spoke it without accent, as she did French, Italian, Spanish and Russian. She was, in a word, an accomplished linguist, and I soon found that her knowledge of occult works was fully equal to my own. Due to her curiosity for the black magic which has been the bane of ignorant searchers and would-be magicians (she explained her interest on the ground of preparation to work against this widespread but unacknowledged evil), I found myself rapidly acquiring a fund of information from the archives not only of Germany, but of Italy, France, Spain and Russia.

“I was naturally grateful to this young girl for her profound interest in my research, and her enthusiastic co-operation whenever I stood in need of it, but there was not the slightest emotional slant in my feelings toward her. This was something she was unable to grasp; to her my gratitude, fervently expressed, was but the froth bubbling up from some deeper emotion, and she unhappily permitted herself to be carried away by her confidence in her own judgment, and became deeply—only too deeply—involved toward me in her affectional life.

“I became aware of this first when her father fell ill, and we had to take turns watching at his bedside, for his long delving into the occult and his early ignorance of the proper methods for protecting himself against malign influences had laid him open to certain very evil” Dale stopped hesitatingly, then went on: “Suffice it to say that he was afraid to be alone, and feared also to be left with a nurse unversed in the occult. Both Gretel and I knew how to protect him while he slept, and only when one of us was present would he relax. It was during those night watches that Gretel’s passion burst its bounds, plainly showing that she had long lost an impersonal attitude toward.me. I had maintained mine toward her so scrupulously, even in my slightest thought, that her sudden revelation came to me as a distinct shock.”

“And you, a physician, were totally unprepared for the consequences of propinquity,” observed Ewan, scathingly, lips scornful.

“I’ve seen you treat your models with exactly that entire lack of personal feeling, Ewan,” cried Bessie reproachfully. “You’ve been so submerged in your work that you’ve forgotten they were human beings even.”