CHAPTER VI

REACTIONS


There are days in life which, to the backward look of later years stand
out with undying vividness, and this not necessarily because of any
import attached to them; often, in the irrational workings of memory,
very vital affairs refuse to come when bid, while quite little things or
aspects of them are imprinted on the mind for ever. That ceremony of
"Crying the Neck" at Cloom had, it is true, been for Ishmael Ruan a
notable happening, but it was for a certain pictorial brilliance that he
retained it so clearly in after years, and not for any strategic
importance, which at the time would not have impressed him. Yet, long
afterwards, in the light of that memory, he saw how his life had turned
a corner on that occasion, and how after it a different phase began.

Life to him at that time was, of course, entirely centred round himself,
the only organism of which he was thoroughly aware. People went to fill
his world, but only as they affected him. Archelaus was a terrific being
whom he held in awe for his feats of strength, but about whom he was
beginning to be conscious of a certain inferiority. Tom he dreaded for
his powers of sarcasm, and here he felt no sense of superiority as he
did over Archelaus; Tom could make him feel even smaller than the Parson
could, and with no kindly intention behind to soften the knock.

But if everyone else were out of temper, there was always one person he
could be sure of finding the same, and that was John-James--good, kind,