`` There is no need of my either forgetting or remembering it , '' said Rosemary , a little wearily . `` YOU forget that I 'm an old maid , Ellen . It is only your sisterly delusion that I am still young and blooming and dangerous . Mr. Meredith merely wants to be a friend -- if he wants that much itself . He 'll forget us both long before he gets back to the manse . '' `` I 've no objection to your being friends with him , '' conceded Ellen , `` but it mus n't go beyond friendship , remember . I 'm always suspicious of widowers . They are not given to romantic ideas about friendship . They 're apt to mean business . As for this Presbyterian man , what do they call him shy for ? He 's not a bit shy , though he may be absent-minded -- so absent-minded that he forgot to say goodnight to ME when you started to go to the door with him . He 's got brains , too . There 's so few men round here that can talk sense to a body . I 've enjoyed the evening . I would n't mind seeing more of him . But no philandering , Rosemary , mind you -- no philandering . '' Rosemary was quite used to being warned by Ellen from philandering if she so much as talked five minutes to any marriageable man under eighty or over eighteen . She had always laughed at the warning with unfeigned amusement . This time it did not amuse her -- it irritated her a little . Who wanted to philander ?
`` Do n't be such a goose , Ellen , '' she said XXXXX unaccustomed shortness as she took her lamp .
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