The Duke of York's Steps by Henry Wade — Read

Detective-Inspector John Poole had had, as Chief Inspector Barrod had told Sir Leward Marradine, a good education. That is to say, he had been to a private school, one of the smaller public schools, and to the University of Oxford, where he had been an exhibitioner of St. James's College. It was at Oxford that the seed of his rather eccentric ambition had been sown in him. His father, a country doctor with a comfortable practice, had intended him at first to follow in his own footsteps, but when John began to show signs of brain power above the family average, without feeling any of the "call" to a career of healing that is so essential to success in that profession, he had substituted the Bar as the goal of the boy's academical efforts. John had a cool, clear brain, the facility to express himself concisely, and a capacity for hard and persistent work -- a dogged pursuit of results -- all admirable qualities in a barrister.

For a time young Poole followed the course laid down for him willingly enough. He took his Law Prelim. in his stride, and settled down to the pursuit of Final Honours -- a First if possible, a Second as very second best. At the same time he did not neglect either the athletic or social side of University life. In his third year he got an Athletic Half-Blue, running as second string in the Low Hurdles, whilst in the summer he played cricket for his College and once figured, but without conspicuous success, in a Seniors' Match. He began to rehearse a small part in _The Winter's Tale_ for the O. U. D. S. but, finding it took too much of his time, mostly spent in hanging about watching the stars spread themselves, he gave it up and took to political and other debating societies.