ned to him; he had contented
himself with continuing to be.

"No," the nephew answered, and flicked the ashes from his cigar. "No,
something else turned up and----"

"Exactly. If I had met you there I should not have come here. Now, I
want a word with you in regard to the estate. Are you busy?" And the
ex-Minister settled himself in his chair with the air of a man confident
that, whatever else might demand attention, his own affairs would take
precedence.

Thereupon, for some little time, nephew and uncle discussed matters of
personal and common interest; and when at last these matters had been
satisfactorily determined, the afternoon had begun to wane. At last the
ex-Minister stood up to go.

"By the way," he said, his hand on the door, "who was it that Petrus
Menemon's daughter married? I looked for her last night. When I saw her
at the opera I could have sworn it was her mother. Same type, same eyes,
same carriage of the head. She made me feel twenty years younger, I give
you my word she did."

"She is pretty," Maule answered, negligently.

"Pretty? She is more intoxicating than the dream of a fallen angel. She
is better looking than her mother. Hum, hum. You don't see such women in
France. What did you say her name is?"

"She married a man named Usselex."

"Usselex? What Usselex?"

"What Usselex I can't tell you. But there seems to be only one, and she
caught him. He has more money than Incoul, Jerolomon, and Bleecker
Bleecker put together."

"You don't mean John Usselex, the banker?"

"Oh, but I do, though."

The ex-Minister opened the door and looked out into the outer room,
then, assured that no one was listening, he resumed his former seat,
crossed his legs, and meditatively beat his knee. In his face was an
expression which a psychologist would have admired, a commingling of the
vatic and the amused, accentuated by sarcasm.

"Well, what of it?" Maule asked shortly, perplexed at the mummery.

The ex-Minister leaned forward and for four or five minutes addressed
his nephew in a monotone. As he spoke Maule's perplexity changed to
surprise, then to bewilderment, and ultimately into jubilation. "Are you
positive of this?" he exclaimed. "Tell me that you are. You must be
positive!"

"I give you the facts--"

"I am off, then;" and he sprang from his seat. "I haven't a minute to
lose," he added; and taking his uncle by the arm he led him from the
office.

In the outer room the corpulent dwarf st