ing, her expression, her figure, as seen through Carter's eyes,
were completely unlike anything expressible by words. I was fascinated,
I could do nothing but watch, and I felt a wild surge of jealousy as I
caught the adoration in the attitude of the humble Carter. She was
glorious, magnificent, indescribable. It was with an effort that I
untangled myself from the web of fascination enough to catch Carter's
thought of her name. "Lisa," he was thinking. "Lisa."

What she said to van Manderpootz was in tones too low for me to hear,
and apparently too low for Carter's ears as well, else I should have
heard her words through the attitudinizor. But both of us heard van
Manderpootz's bellow in answer.

"I don't care how the dictionary pronounces the word!" he roared. "The
way van Manderpootz pronounces a word is right!"

The glorious Lisa turned silently and vanished. For a few moments I
watched her through Carter's eyes, but as she neared the laboratory
door, he turned his attention again to van Manderpootz, and she was lost
to my view.

And as I saw the professor close his dissertation and approach me, I
slipped the attitudinizor from my head and forced myself to a measure of
calm.

"Who is she?" I demanded. "I've got to meet her!"

He looked blankly at me. "Who's who?"

"Lisa! Who's Lisa?"

There was not a flicker in the cool blue eyes of van Manderpootz. "I
don't know any Lisa," he said indifferently.

"But you were just talking to her! Right out there!"

Van Manderpootz stared curiously at me; then little by little a shrewd
suspicion seemed to dawn in his broad, intelligent features. "Hah!" he
said. "Have you, by any chance, been using the attitudinizor?"

I nodded, chill apprehension gripping me.

"And is it also true that you chose to investigate the viewpoint of
Carter out there?" At my nod, he stepped to the door that joined the two
rooms, and closed it. When he faced me again, it was with features
working into lines of amusement that suddenly found utterance in booming
laughter. "Haw!" he roared. "Do you know who beautiful Lisa is? She's
Fitch!"

"Fitch? You're mad! She's glorious, and Fitch is plain and scrawny and
ugly. Do you think I'm a fool?"

"You ask an embarrassing question," chuckled the professor. "Listen to
me, Dixon. The woman you saw was my secretary, Miss Fitch, seen through
the eyes of Carter. Don't you understand? The idiot Carter's in love
with her!"

* * *