Meanwhile, the Parson told Ishmael, in language that made everything
seem clean and wonderful, as much as he thought wise of the mysteries
which had perplexed him and Jacka's John-Willy over the snail. The
ideals Ishmael gradually absorbed during these years made the thought of
the furtive conversations with John-Willy seem hateful, and with their
swift acquisitiveness of values both little girls appreciated that he
would be superior to them if they indulged in any of the vulgarities
most children are apt to fall into at one period, harmless enough in
fact, but not cleansing to the mind. Therefore each of the three
affected the other two in some way, and the pattern of Ishmael's life,
though so essentially isolated as everyone's must be in greater or less
measure, was intermingled at many of its edges with those of the two
girls'. But always it was the Parson who held his heart as far as any
human entity could be said to do so. For it was still the world of
things and ideas which filled the round of his horizon most for Ishmael,
and in that world the thought of his great trust held ever-strengthening
place.

One great cause for relief he had, which came upon him soon after the
settlement of the scholastic arrangement at the Vicarage, and that was
the departure of Archelaus, who enlisted and went to the Crimea. Later
he was wounded and discharged, but even then he did not come home, but
went to the goldfields of New South Wales. The great fever of that rush
was on, and, any form of mining being in a Cornishman's blood, there
were many that went from West Penwith alone. The malignant presence of
Archelaus withdrawn, though he did not understand the malignancy,
Ishmael felt lighter, freer. Tom he hardly ever saw, and the girls were
under dire penalties from the Parson never to hint to Ishmael the true
reason of the domestic complications of Cloom. That Boase reserved for