Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/152

128 Joseph Gallego attempted to bequeath a similar charity to the Roman Catholic Church at Richmond, and Henry St. George Tucker, President of the Supreme Court of Virginia, in a famous opinion, held that it must fail, and from that time until the present the courts of this country have been passing upon this common error of testators and their incompetent advisers.”

Robert Dalton looked up anxiously. “In what cases?” he stammered.

“What cases!” almost shouted the elder counsellor, for he had now lost his temper completely. “What cases, you bungler! Ask the veriest pettyfogger; ask the commonest justice of the peace, but do not catechise me.” And after having delivered himself of this venom, he seized his hat and cane and stalked out of the house. He was greatly enraged to think that a man of Dalton's learning, a member of a firm of high standing, should make such a stupendous blunder.

Later in the day Robert Dalton came to the office and requested Carpenter and Lomax to join him in his private room. His face showed