A few hours later Paul was perusing the journal he had been promised.
At first he was disappointed. After all, there did not seem to be
anything much more attractive going on in Brunford than in Cornwall.
The _West Briton_ was, as far as he could see, a more interesting
paper. Presently, however, his heart gave a leap. He saw that a law
case of some sort had been going on in Manchester, and as the counsel
for one of the parties, he saw the name of "G. D. Graham." At first he
could scarcely believe his own eyes. He did not realise that there
might be hundreds of Grahams, many of whom might be barristers. With
his small parochial ideas, there could be only one Graham who could
occupy such a position--and Manchester was only a few miles from
Brunford. Of course all the barristers could not live in London.
There must be many all over the country, and Graham lived there. A
strange feeling filled his heart; he felt sure he had found his father,
the man who had wronged his mother, who had blighted her life. Again
the picture of her as he saw her last flashed back to his mind, the
care-worn, tired, sad-looking woman whom he loved as his mother; and
she was going back to servitude, to misery, and all this because of the
man who had deceived her, ruined her life. He had taken her as his
wife, and then written her that cruel, insulting letter, and left her
to the scorn and mercilessness of a hard world. And he would see him.
If he lived in Manchester he would be employed for other cases. It
would be easy to find out all about them, and he could go there and
watch. He realised that he could do nothing while he was ignorant.
Perhaps this G. D. Graham was a great man by now, and he would deny all
knowledge of what he had done; therefore he must find out, he must
prepare himself, and he could only do that through getting a knowledge
of the world, a knowledge of law, a knowledge of men.
This decided him. He remembered what Wadge had said about the
Mechanics' Institute, and about working-lad students belonging to Owens
College and obtaining University degrees. Of course that must mean
knowledge, and knowledge was power. So much he had learnt, at all
events, at the night-school where he had attended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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