on.

He reached the house and went up the steps. The door was open, and,
instead of ringing, he went straight in. But what he did next was the
strangest of all. He could not have told you why he did it any more
than he could have told you why he did anything else. Instead of
knocking at the door or going into any room that he passed, he went
downstairs to the door of the kitchen. There, just for one instant,
he stopped--the first instant that he had stopped since he left the
O'Briens' house. Then, still without knocking, he pushed the door open
and went in.

[Illustration: ]

XI

THE OLD KING COMES BACK

When Mrs. O'Brien and Kathleen left home they walked through the Park
and to the Sullivans'. Peter was away. Terence half sat and half lay
on the floor in a corner. He held his right hand behind him and
covered his face with his left arm. His whole body shook as if he were
riding in a cart over a rough road. Ellen sat close to him, trying to
soothe him and trying to get him to tell her what was the matter.

When Mrs. 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."

"Ellen," said the old woman, "go down to the kitchen. We'll follow
you, and Terence can come, too, if he likes, and I think he will."

Without a word Ellen went down the stairs. Mrs. O'Brien called to
Terence: "We are going to the kitchen; you can come if you like."

Mrs. O'Brien and Kathleen followed E