'I promise nothing--but Fricker deceived you before. He lied when he told you they were all right; he may be lying when he tells you they're all wrong.' 'But what good could that do him?' 'If you threw them on the market the price would fall. Suppose he wanted to buy!' Luckily Trix did not wait to analyse the suggestion; she flew to the next difficulty. 'But the liability?' 'I'll look into it, and let you know. Don't cherish any hope.' 'No, but you must have meant that there was a glimmer of hope?' She insisted urgently, turning a strained, agitated face up to his. 'If you'll swear to think it no more than a glimmer--a glimmer let it be.' 'You always tell me the truth. I'll remember--a glimmer.' 'No more,' he insisted, with a marked pertinacity. 'No more, on my honour,' said Trix Trevalla. She had gone towards the door; he followed till he was by the little table. He stood there and picked up the red book in his hand. 'No more than a glimmer,' he repeated, 'because things may go all wrong in the end still.' 'Not if they depend on you!' she cried, with a gaiety inspired by the hope which he did not altogether forbid, and by the trust that she had in him. 'Even though they depended altogether on me.' He flung the book down and came close to her. 'If they go right, I shall thank heaven for sending you here to-day. And now--I have a thing that I must do.' 'Yes, I've taken a terrible lot of your time. Good-bye.' She yielded to her impulse towards intimacy, towards knowing what he did, how he spent his time. 'Are you going to work? Are you going to try and invent things?' 'No, I'm going to study that book.' He pointed to it with a shrug. 'What's inside?' 'I don't know what I shall find inside,' he told her. 'Good news or bad? The old story or a new one? I can't tell.' 'You don't mean to tell me--that's clear anyhow,' laughed Trix. 'Impertinent questions politely evaded! I take the hint. Good-bye. And, Mr. Newton--a glimmer of hope!' 'Yes, a glimmer,' he said, passing his hand over his brow rather wearily. 'Well, I must leave you to the secrets of the red book,' she ended. He came to the top of the stairs with her. Half-way down she turned and kissed her hand to him. Her step was a thousand times more buoyant; her smiles came as though native-born again and no longer timid strangers. Such was the work that a glimmer of hope could do.