“You see,” he said as he rose to greet his guest, “that even here in Paris, with enough to render most men contented, my thoughts go back to my old friends and home in America. I don’t know whether I shall ever return or not; but of late I have been thinking seriously of running over to New York for a week or two to settle a little matter of business that has been worrying me for a short time past.” Mr. Dexter did not explain that the “short time past” meant only about eight hours nor did he, of course, say what the matter was that troubled him but his guest divined that it might be some family affair and asked him if that were not the case. “Well yes,” rejoined Mr. Dexter, “it is a family matter, and one that I cannot settle very well by mail, though I might write my nephew and ask him to attend to it for me.” “Your nephew?” exclaimed Mr. Van Kuren, “why I was not aware that you were even on speaking terms with him, and for my part I would not blame you if you never have anything more to say to him.” The older man looked up at his visitor, and said very gently and with the same pleasant smile that always came into his face when he spoke to either Harry or Laura, “My dear Horace, when you reach my age you will be anxious to settle up all your earthly quarrels so that when the time comes for you to leave this world you may do so with a feeling that you leave no enemies behind.” “But do you mean to tell me,” demanded Mr. Van Kuren, “that you have become a friend of that good-for-nothing nephew of yours again? I can’t understand it after the way in which he treated you ten years ago.” “You must remember, Horace, that Sam is the only blood relation I have left in this world. He came to see me a few months before I left America, and I found him so regretful for the past, and so much changed for the better that I have now fully as much confidence in him as I ever had in my own son.” Mr. Van Kuren shrugged his shoulders, and after a moment’s hesitation, replied, “There’s nothing in the world that would induce me to place any confidence whatever in Sam Dexter, even if he is your only blood relation. It is entirely through him that the misunderstanding occurred which separated us for years, and I have heard of him in New York of late as connected with some very dubious enterprises.”