Paul could not get beyond this, and when, at the end of three days, he returned to England, he felt that, although his visit to his mother's home and the scenes associated with their marriage were extremely interesting, he had made no real forward step. One statement of the old lawyer, however, remained in his memory, and he brooded over it during his journey back to Brunford: "If ye could find the man," said the old lawyer, "who took the lass to the inn on the English side of the border and declared her to be his wife and signed his name in the book, I think you would have such a hold on him, if ye faced him with these things, that he couldna get out of it. But beyond this I daurna go."
And so Paul felt he had moved forward in spite of himself. Somehow the marriage seemed more real, and he felt that he was nearer the day when the shame which had so long rested upon his mother's life would be lifted.
No sooner had he reached Brunford, however, than these thoughts were driven from his mind. Rumours were in the air that the Government was about to resign and that an election was imminent.
"Bolitho is coming to-morrow," said old Ezra Bradfield, the chairman of the Workmen's League. "And I hear he means to move heaven and earth to keep you out of Parliament."
"And I mean to get in," said Paul grimly.
CHAPTER VII
THE FIGHT AND THE RESULT
A little later Brunford was wild with excitement. It is true the Government had not yet resigned, and as a consequence the General Election was not yet upon them, but all felt that there was a crisis in the political situation, and that the battle would be a very keen one indeed. Mr. Bolitho was spending all the time he possibly could in Brunford, while Mary Bolitho had resumed her work of canvassing the poorer streets. More than once Paul, in going round the town, had seen her, but she never looked toward him, and seemed to be utterly regardless of his presence. All the same, Paul felt sure she had seen him, and her presence, even although she had become the fixed star of his life, strengthened his determination to get the better of her father in this fight. So entirely did he devote himself to his political work that, in the main, he left business matters to his partner.
"Things are safe in your hands, Preston," he said, "and everything is going smoothly. Now I'm on this job I mean to win."