‘Because of the way I am.’

She did not move. She stood by the bookcase, with her back pressed into it. The agitation in her face increased. Tom could sense her telling him to go away, even though she didn’t say it. He didn’t want to go away. He wanted to explain that he had understood why people thought of him like that ever since he’d seen Briscoe with the girl, Briscoe trying to do what Mr O’Hagan had kicked the dog for. He wanted to tell Sister Conheady about Dorrie Deavy repeating what her father had said, and how Mr Coyne had changed his mind about inviting him into his house, and how his grandmother had been going to kiss him and then hadn’t. He wanted to tell her that people didn’t object to being in a room with him, that only the Deavy boys moved to the other side of the street. The woman on the cart had been sorry for him but she didn’t want to contaminate herself. He began again about Briscoe and the girl, how Briscoe’s coat had been lying beside them on the grass.

‘What are you talking about?’ She crossed herself. He mustn’t say that, she said. She told him to go to Confession. She asked him if he was looking after the holy well.

‘I keep an eye on it all right.’

‘When you put your hand down into the clay keep it there for a long while. Don’t talk about those other things.’

He could see that she was praying. Her lips weren’t moving, no sound came from her, but he was aware that she was interceding for him. When he guessed she had finished he said:

‘I only wanted to ask you.’

‘As soon as you’ll get across to the island go up to that place and put your hand down into the moisture. Say your rosary there.’

‘Yes,’ he said.

He began to go away, but she called him back when he’d reached the door and told him to wait there a minute. She opened the drawer and took out the exercise-book. She tore a page out and wrote on it, then searched impatiently for an envelope. Failing to find one, she folded the page several times and wrote on the outside of it. ‘Give that to Mrs Balt,’ she said. ‘Put it inside one of the books, only draw her attention to it. Don’t forget now.’

‘I’m sorry I said that to you.’