Cirrus@Austlit

A sentient doll, created from the skin of a mermaid and of the man who built her, as a token to a mermaid he once loved, is sold to a toyshop when her creator falls in love again. She is sold to a poet, with whom she falls desperately in love. But the poet uses her as a physical substitute for his distant lover, and is not capable of returning her affections–or even of recognising her sentience.