O'Brien and Kathleen came in Terence seemed to try to make
himself smaller, but he did nothing else. "Ellen," said Mrs. O'Brien,
"come outside the room here for a moment; I have something to tell
you."
"Look at Terence there," Ellen answered; "how can I leave him when
he's that way?"
"Leave him," said Mrs. O'Brien, "and come out here with me."
She took Ellen by the hand and led her, and Ellen followed. There was
something in Mrs. O'Brien's look now that told her she would have to
come. "Now look at me," said Mrs. O'Brien, when they were out of the
room; "do I look as if I would mean every word I said, or do I not?"
Ellen did not answer, and Mrs. O'Brien said: "Ellen, when it was only
your own affair I told you what you ought to do, but I let you take
your own way. But now it is Kathleen's affair and John's and mine, and
it is time that I had my way. Look at me, Ellen, and tell me, do I
look as if I meant to have it?"
Again Ellen looked in the old woman's face and said nothing for an
instant. Then she looked down again in a confused way, and said: "I
must go back to Terence.
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