`` You have too much good sense and decorum . '' `` Why did they ever build that manse beside the graveyard in the first place ? '' asked Anne . `` Their lawn is so small there is no place for them to play except in the graveyard . '' `` It WAS a mistake , '' admitted Miss Cornelia . `` But they got the lot cheap . And no other manse children ever thought of playing there . Mr. Meredith should n't allow it . But he has always got his nose buried in a book , when he is home . He reads and reads , or walks about in his study in a day-dream . So far he has n't forgotten to be in church on Sundays , but twice he has forgotten about the prayer-meeting and one of the elders had to go over to the manse and remind him . And he forgot about Fanny Cooper 's wedding . They rang him up on the ` phone and then he rushed right over , just as he was , carpet slippers and all . One would n't mind if the Methodists did n't laugh so about it . But there 's one comfort -- they ca n't criticize his sermons . He wakes up when he 's in the pulpit , believe ME . And the Methodist minister ca n't preach at all -- so they tell me . I have never heard him , thank goodness . '' Miss Cornelia 's scorn of men had abated somewhat since her marriage , but her scorn of Methodists remained untinged of charity . Susan smiled slyly .
`` They do say , Mrs. Marshall Elliott , that the XXXXX and Presbyterians are talking of uniting , '' she said .
Cooper Cornelia Meredith Methodist Methodists Susan day-dream first prayer-meeting right