"Oh no. The sessions of the Orphans' Court are held in the judge's office. This way." And he opened a door leading into the next room.
Miss Miflin felt Sarah's tight grasp on her arm, and the twins came close behind. This room was much larger than the one they were leaving. There was no carpet on the floor, and no attempt at elegant furniture. At one end was a plain, businesslike desk, and the twenty or thirty chairs which stood about the room were straight and uncushioned.
To Miss Miflin's distress, almost every chair was occupied. The stranger frowned a little when he saw the audience. It took a very short time for the news of an interesting case to spread through the court-house.
But Miss Miflin's surprise was nothing to be compared to the surprise of two of the occupants of the wooden chairs. Daniel Swartz's eyes widened, and Jacob Kalb nudged him visibly.
"It is Sarah and the zwillings," he cried. "Sarah and the zwillings!"
Uncle Daniel had had a moment of severe fright. The lawyer had told him that they had only to go to the court-house to get the papers. But his fright passed.
"Pooh, what do I care?" he said. "I have my lawyer, and I paid him twenty-five dollars already. I am not afraid of no zwillings. Nor yet no school-teacher," he added under his breath. In Uncle Daniel's mind, the days of Miss Miflin in the Spring Grove School were numbered.
But the surprises were not yet over. The tall gentleman found places for Miss Miflin and the children near the desk at the front of the room. Sarah looked up at him with a mixture of gratitude and alarm.
"Couldn't you stay by us?" she whispered.
The stranger laughed.