"Not a soul--save, possibly, Alys to herself. She doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm for the Star of Elsinore. Provincial people are too funny for words. Maybe we New Yorkers are also provincial in our tendency to forget there is any other America. I intend to cultivate the open mind; a writer must, I think. So you see just how in earnest I am. Don't you believe you could trust me? All the world knows that a newspaper person is the safest depository on earth for a secret." "Oh, I have the most touching confidence in your honour, and the most profound admiration for your candour, and the deepest sympathy for ambitions so natural to one afflicted with genius. I am only wondering whether if I gave you the information you seem to need you would permit Mrs. Balfame to remain in jail and stand trial for her life." "You are not to laugh at me! Yes, I should. Because I know that she has ninety-nine chances out of a hundred to get off, and that if she were condemned you would come forward at once and tell the truth." "And you really believe I did it?" His hands were in his pockets, and he was balancing himself on his heels. There was certainly nothing tense about his tall loose figure, but the light of the street lamp, filtered through a low branch, threw shadows on his face that made it look pallid and as darkly hollowed as the face of an elderly actress in a moving picture. To Miss Sarah Austin he looked like a guilty man engaged in the honourable art of bluffing, but her mounting irritation precluded pity. "Yes, Mr. Rush, I do. It is to my mind the one logical explanation--" "You mean the logical fictional--" "I'm no writer of detective stories--" "Just like a novel then?" "Ah! That I admit. The great novel is a logical transcript of life. The incidents rise out of the characters, react upon them, are as inevitable as the personal endowments, peculiarities, and contradictions. Understand your characters, and you can't go wrong." "You are the cleverest young woman I ever met. For that reason I feel convinced you need no such adventitious aid as confession from a murderer. You will work it out--your premises being dead right--far better by yourself. It's the contradictions you mentioned I am thinking of, both in life and character." "You are laughing at me. It's no laughing matter!" "By God, it isn't. But you couldn't expect me to plump out a confession like that without taking a night to think it over." "If you don't tell me, I warn you I'll find out for myself. And then I'll give it to my newspaper. To begin with, I'll find out if you really did see any one in Brooklyn that Saturday night. I'll discover the name of everybody you know in Brooklyn." "That's a large order. I fear the case will be over." "I'll set the whole swarm on the case. But if you will tell me the truth, you will be quite safe." "The cause of literature might influence me were it not that I fear to be thought a coward--by my fair blackmailer."