Part 24 (2/2)
The lawyer glanced at the bit of pasteboard, and said immediately:
”Oh, yes, show her in.”
The two clerks left the room and Judge Brewster, after a glance in the mirror to re-adjust his cravat, turned to greet his visitor. The door opened and Alicia entered. She was faultlessly gowned, as usual, but her manner was flurried and agitated. Evidently something had happened to upset her, and she had come to make her husband's lawyer the confidant of her troubles. The judge advanced gallantly and pointed to a chair.
”Good morning, my dear Mrs. Jeffries, how do you do?”
”Is Mr. Jeffries here?” asked Alicia hurriedly.
”Not yet,” he replied, smiling. ”This is an unexpected pleasure. I think it is the first time you have graced my office with your presence.”
”How quiet it is here!” she exclaimed, looking around nervously. ”It is hard to believe this is the very centre of the city.” Taking the seat offered to her, she went on:
”Oh, judge, we are dreadfully worried.”
”You mean about the Underwood case?”
Alicia nodded.
”Yes, Mr. Jeffries is terribly upset. As if the coming trial and all the rest of the scandal were not enough. But now we have to face something even worse, something that affects me even more than my husband. Really, I'm frantic about it.”
”What's happened now?” asked the lawyer calmly.
”That woman is going on the stage, that's all!” she snapped.
”H'm,” said the lawyer calmly.
”Just think!” she cried, ”the name, 'Mrs. Howard Jeffries'--my name--paraded before the public! At a time when everything should be done to keep it out of the papers this woman is going to flaunt herself on the stage!”
She fanned herself indignantly, while the lawyer rapped his desk absent-mindedly with a paper cutter. Alicia went on:
”You know I have never met the woman. What is she like? I understand she's been bothering you to take the case of that worthless husband of hers. Do you know she had the impertinence to come to our house and ask Mr. Jeffries to help them? I asked my husband to describe her, but all I could get from him was that she was impertinent and impossible.” She hesitated a moment, then she added: ”Is she as pretty as her pictures in the paper? You've seen her, of course?”
Judge Brewster frowned.
”Yes,” he replied. ”She comes here every day regularly. She literally compels me to see her and refuses to go till I've told her I haven't changed my decision about taking her case.”
”What insolence!” exclaimed Alicia. ”I should think that you would have her put out of the office.”
The lawyer was silent and toyed somewhat nervously with the paper cutter, as if not quite decided as to what response to make. He coughed and fussed with the papers on the desk.
”Why don't you have her put out of the office?” she repeated.
The judge looked up. There was an expression in his face that might have been interpreted as one of annoyance, as if he rather resented this intrusion into his business affairs, but Mrs. Jeffries, Sr., was too important a client to quarrel with, so he merely said:
”Frankly, Mrs. Jeffries, if it were not for the fact that Mr. Jeffries has exacted from me a promise not to take up this case, I should be tempted to--consider the matter. In the first place, you know I always liked Howard. I saw a good deal of him before your marriage to Mr.
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