Norma moved into his arms again to show him that she was irritated but not angry. "You're a sweet fool, Peter. But sometimes too much of a fool and not as sweet as you might be." She kissed him quickly. "Let's not beat the past to death. It's past. Let's hope for tomorrow. And why not tonight? You're on the brink of success. Let's make it complete."

"I'd like to. But there's only one catch."

"A catch?"

Peter Mansfield nodded unhappily. "Don't you think for one moment that I don't know your father's feelings. He poured money into this project because you urged him to, not because he felt that I was a howling success."

Norma laughed gently. "Peter, you'd take his money, so why not take mine?"

Peter smiled grimly. "Because it is your father that I've got to face, even more than you. Sure," he said with a bitter smile, "I could have poured a million of your dollars down the drain and if I'd failed, you'd have forgotten it. But I'd know that and maybe I'd have worked less hard—"

"You? Nonsense."

"—but when it is a strictly business proposition, and I make a success and hand your father the details of a paying proposition, then both he—and me—and the rest of the world will know that I've got what it takes, instead of having to lean financially on a wealthy wife."

"You'd think I was buying you like a puppy."

"I wonder if you might not have been trying to," he grunted.

"I won't even answer that," said Norma with a slight flare of anger. "So suppose you show me what it has taken you five years to build."

Peter looked down at her and took a deep breath. He felt relieved. He would prefer to spend the next twenty-four hours explaining his project to someone who knew it rather well than to spend the next couple of hours in the same futile argument they'd been engaged in for some time.

She smiled up at him. "Tell me more about your matter transmitter and what your big problem was."

"Shucks," he grinned, "you know as much about it as I do."

"Not really. Oh, I've heard you expound for years but it still goes over my head."

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