If he carefully, or even
jealously guarded his own interests, and held the leading law firm in
the hollow of his hand, he was not oppressive, to the general
knowledge. He was a despot, perhaps, but he was Blackstone's ideal of
the head of a state, a good despot. In all his family relations he was
of the exemplary perfection which most other men attain only on their
tombstones, and I had found him the best of neighbors. There were some
shadows of diffidence between the ladies of our families, mainly on the
part of my wife, but none between Talbert and me. He showed me, as a
newspaper man with ideals if not abilities rather above the average, a
deference which pleased my wife, even more than me.
It was the married daughter whom she most feared might, if occasion
offered, give herself more consequence than her due. She had tried to
rule her own family while in her father's house, and now though she had
a house of her own, my wife believed that she had not wholly
relinquished her dominion there. Her husband was the junior member of
the law firm which Talbert kept in his pay, to the exclusion of most
other clients, and he was a very good fellow, so far as I knew, with
the modern conception of his profession which, in our smaller towns and
cities, has resulted in corporation lawyers and criminal lawyers, and
has left to a few aging attorneys the faded traditions and the scanty
affairs of the profession.
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