The Dark Other by Stanley G. Weinbaum (new ebook reader .txt) 📕

to be taken with a grain of salt,” retorted the girl, puckering her piquant, impish features. She edged closer to him, locking her arm through his where it rested on the steering wheel.

“Nick,” she said, her tones suddenly gentle, “I think I’m pretty crazy about you. Heaven knows why I should be, but it’s a fact.”

“Pat, dear!”

“I’m crazy about you in this meek, sensitive pose of yours, and I’m fascinated by those masterful moments you flash occasionally. Really, Nick, I almost wish you flamed out oftener.”

“Don’t!” he said sharply.

“Why not?”

“Let’s not talk about me, Pat. It⁠—embarrasses me.”

“All right, Mr. Modesty! Let’s talk about me, then. I’ll promise we won’t succeed in embarrassing me.”

“And it’s quite the most interesting subject in the world, Pat.”

“Well, then?”

“What?”

“Why don’t you start talking? The topic is all attention.”

He chuckled. “How many men have told you you were beautiful, Pat?”

“I never kept account.”

“And in many different ways?”

“Why? Have you, perchance, discovered a new way, Nick?”

“Not at all. The oldest way of any, the way of Sappho and Pindar.”

“O-ooh!” She clapped her hands in mock delight. “Poetry!”

“The only medium that could possibly express how lovely you are,” said Nick.

“Nicholas, have you gone and composed a poem to me?”

“Composed? No. It isn’t necessary, with you here beside me.”

“What’s that? Some very subtle compliment?”

“Not subtle, Pat. You’re the poem yourself; all I need do is look at you, listen to you, and translate.”

“Neat!” applauded the girl. “Do I hear the translation?”

“You certainly do.” He turned his odd amber-green eyes on her, then bent forward to the road. He began to speak in a low voice.

“In no far country’s silent ways
Shall I forget one little thing⁠—
The soft intentness of your gaze,
The sweetness of your murmuring
Your generously tender praise,
The words just hinted by a breath⁠—
In no far country’s silent way,
Unless that country’s name be Death⁠—”

He paused abruptly, and drove silently onward.

“Oh,” breathed Pat. “Why don’t you go on, Nick? Please.”

“No. It isn’t the mood for this night, Dear. Not this night, alone with you.”

“What is, then?”

“Nothing sentimental. Something lighter, something⁠—oh, Elizabethan. That’s it.”

“And what’s stopping you?”

“Lack of an available idea. Or⁠—wait. Listen a moment.” He began, this time in a tone of banter.

“When mornings, you attire yourself
For riding in the city,
You’re such a lovely little elf,
Extravagantly pretty!
And when at noon you deign to wear
The habit of the town,
I cannot call to mind as fair
A symphony in brown.

“Then evenings, you blithely don
A daintiness of white,
To flash a very paragon
Of lightsomeness⁠—and light!
But when the rounds of pleasure cease,
And you retire at night,
The Godling on your mantelpiece
Must know a fairer sight!”

“Sweet!” laughed Pat. “But personal. And anyway, how do you know I’ve a godling on my mantel? Don’t you credit me with any modesty?”

“If you haven’t, you should have! The vision I mentioned ought to enliven even a statue.”

“Well,” said the girl, “I have one⁠—a jade Buddha, and with all the charms I flash before him nightly, he’s never batted an eyelash. Explain that!”

“Easily. He’s green with envy, and frozen with admiration, and struck dumb by wonder.”

“Heavens! I suppose I ought to be thankful you didn’t say he was petrified with fright!” Pat laughed. “Oh Nick,” she continued, in a voice gone suddenly dreamy, “this is marvelous, isn’t it? I mean our enjoying ourselves so completely, and our being satisfied to be so alone. Why, we’ve never even danced together.”

“So we haven’t. That’s a subterfuge we haven’t needed, isn’t it?”

“It is,” replied the girl, dropping her glossy gleaming black head against his shoulder. “And besides, it’s much more satisfactory to be held in your arms in private, instead of in the midst of a crowd, and sitting down, instead of standing up. But I should like to dance with you, Nick,” she concluded.

“We’ll go dancing, then, whenever you like.”

“You’re delightfully complaisant, Nick. But⁠—you’re puzzling.” She glanced up at him. “You’re so⁠—so reluctant. Here we’ve been driving an hour, and you haven’t tried to kiss me a single time, and yet I’m quite positive you care for me.”

“Lord, Pat!” he muttered. “You never need doubt that.”

“Then what is it? Are you so spiritual and ethereal, or is my attraction for you just sort of intellectual? Or⁠—are you afraid?” As he made no reply, she continued, “Or are those poems you spout about my physical charms just⁠—poetic license?”

“They’re not, and you know it!” he snapped. “You’ve a mirror, haven’t you? And other fellows than I have taken you around, haven’t they?”

“Oh, I’ve been taken around! That’s what perplexes me about you, Nick. I’d think you were actually afraid of kissing me if it weren’t⁠—” Her voice trailed into silence, and she stared speculatively ahead at the ribbon of road that rolled steadily into the headlights’ glare.

She broke the interval of wordlessness. “What is it, Nick?” she resumed almost pleadingly. “You’ve hinted at something now and then. Please⁠—you don’t have to hesitate to tell me; I’m modern enough to forgive things past, entanglements, affairs, disgraces, or anything like that. Don’t you think I should know?”

“You’d know,” he said huskily, “if I could tell you.”

“Then there is something, Nick!” She pressed his arm against her. “Tell me, isn’t there?”

“I don’t know.” There was the suggestion of a groan in his voice.

“You don’t know! I can’t understand.”

“I can’t either. Please, Pat, let’s not spoil tonight; if I could tell you, I would. Why, Pat, I love you⁠—I’m terribly, deeply, solemnly in love with you.”

“And I with you, Nick.” She gazed ahead, where the road rose over the arch of a narrow bridge. The speeding car lifted to the rise like a zooming plane.

And suddenly, squarely in the center of the road, another car, until now concealed by the arch of the bridge, appeared almost upon them. There was a heart-stopping moment when a collision seemed inevitable, and Pat felt the arm against her tighten convulsively into a bar of steel. She heard her own sobbing gasp, and then, somehow, they had slipped unscathed between the other