Treasures and beings from across time and space populate the halls of an age-old collector whose tiredness of life can be renewed only by the danger of the next hunt, which in this case means going naked and weaponless against Paul, defender of the lovely Alanna.
On the wall before him, in the dimness of the room, a great circular screen looked out opaquely, waiting his touch. A doorway into time and space. A doorway to beauty and deadly peril and everything that made livable for him a life which had perhaps gone on too long already.

Variants

(1)
  1. “Doorway into Time” by C. L. Moore, in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September 1943.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by C. L. Moore