"Show Mrs. Howard Jeffries, Jr., in."
The clerk looked surprised. Strict orders hitherto had been to show the unwelcome visitor out. He believed that he had not heard aright.
"Did you say Mrs. Jeffries, Jr., judge?"
"I said Mrs. Jeffries, Jr.," replied the lawyer grimly.
"Very well, judge," said the clerk, as he left the room.
Presently there was a timid knock at the door.
"Come in!" called out the lawyer.
CHAPTER XV.
Annie entered the presence of the famous lawyer pale and ill at ease. This sudden summons to Judge Brewster's private office was so unexpected that it came like a shock. For days she had haunted the premises, sitting in the outer office for hours at a time exposed to the stare and covert smiles of thoughtless clerks and office boys. Her requests for an interview had been met with curt refusals. They either said the judge was out of town or else that he was too busy to be seen. At last, evidently acting upon orders, they flatly refused to even send in her name, and she had about abandoned hope when, all at once, a clerk approached her, and addressing her more politely than usual, said that the judge would see her in a few minutes.