Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/137

Rh no man, and fearing no man; in truth, the wags asserted, his courtesy was in itself a libel, because of all members of the bar no one was more rigid, more exacting, or more relentless than Robert Dalton, of Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton.

The mental build of young Dalton rendered him especially valuable as a chancery lawyer, and this department of the business he gradually assumed until it was almost entirely in his hands. For years he drafted all difficult pleadings, especially difficult under the rigid practice of the common law obtaining in the Virginias. He drafted likewise all deeds, wills, and papers of like tenor, with such unusual care and skill that he rapidly gained a reputation,—the sort of reputation which it usually requires a lifetime to establish, and the value of which is above rubies.

When the judges spoke of him they said, “If Mr. Dalton prepared this paper it is probably correct.”

It would be unwise to attribute to young Dalton an utter disregard for social relations. The error of such an assertion would readily