Consequently the attorneys believed in him, and he prospered. He was a
thin man, over fifty years of age, very full of scorn and wrath, impatient
of a fool, and thinking most men to be fools; afraid of nothing on earth--
and, so his enemies said, of nothing elsewhere; eaten up by conceit; fond
of law, but fonder, perhaps, of dominion; soft as milk to those who
acknowledged his power, but a tyrant to all who contested it;
conscientious, thoughtful, sarcastic, bright-witted, and laborious. He was
a man who never spared himself. If he had a case in hand, though the
interest to himself in it was almost nothing, he would rob himself of rest
for a week, should a point arise which required such labour. It was the
theory of Mr. Dove's life that he would never be beaten. Perhaps it was
some fear in this respect that had kept him from Parliament and confined
him to the courts and the company of attorneys. He was, in truth, a
married man with a family; but they who knew him as the terror of
opponents and as the divulger of legal opinions heard nothing of his wife
and children. He kept all such matters quite to himself, and was not given
to much social intercourse with those among whom his work lay.
Pages:
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387