"
"More likely it's eating so much that gives him the kind of sickness
that's on him," Mrs. O'Brien would say. "But I tell you again, it's no
sickness at all he has. He's just one of the Good People, and you
could be rid of him and have your own child back any time you would do
any of the things I would tell you."
But not a word of this would Ellen ever heed. Terence was her own
child, and he might be a bit troublesome, as any child might, but he
was not really bad at all, and it was Kathleen, that was always so
good, the Lord knew why, that made Mrs. O'Brien think that every child
ought to be that way. But there was one strange thing about Terence,
and Ellen herself had to admit it. After that very hour, when he was
one day old, when Mrs. O'Brien came to see him and christened him, or
tried to--she never felt sure till long afterward whether she had done
it or not--he was always quiet when she was near. He would drive poor
Ellen nearly crazy, in spite of all her excuses for him, when he was
alone with her, but the moment that Mrs.
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