Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/143

Rh no change in the man, except perhaps that he was even more rigid and exacting in his professional transactions.

Thus matters continued without event until the night set apart for the first autumn reception of Mrs. LeConte Dean. These were annual events of great revelry, and largely attended. The night was unpropitious, raw, and foggy, as October nights usually are in this region, but this in no wise interfered with the occasion; indeed, it was long remembered as one of startling magnificence.

This reception Robert Dalton determined not to attend, partly because he avoided as far as possible every gathering at which he might be thrown with the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, but principally because the firm had an important case in the Federal Court then sitting, and he had been asked to prepare an elaborate decree for the following day.

After determining to remain at home, Robert Dalton went into his library, gathered his books of reference from their cases, and began the preparation of his legal paper. This decree he found more difficult to draft than he had