`` I think it is just as well to be interested in things as long as you live , '' she had said . `` If you 're not , it does n't seem to me that there 's much difference between the quick and the dead . '' He liked her pleasant , deep , rumbly voice ; he liked the hearty laugh with which she always ended up some jolly and well-told story . She never gave him digs about his children as other Glen women did ; she never bored him with local gossip ; she had no malice and no pettiness . She was always splendidly sincere . Mr. Meredith , who had picked up Miss Cornelia 's way of classifying people , considered that Ellen belonged to the race of Joseph . Altogether , an admirable woman for a sister-in-law . Nevertheless , a man did not want even the most admirable of women around when he was proposing to another woman . And Ellen was always around . She did not insist on talking to Mr. Meredith herself all the time . She let Rosemary have a fair share of him . Many evenings , indeed , Ellen effaced herself almost totally , sitting back in the corner with St. George in her lap , and letting Mr. Meredith and Rosemary talk and sing and read books together . Sometimes they quite forgot her presence . But if their conversation or choice of duets ever betrayed the least tendency to what Ellen considered philandering , Ellen promptly nipped that tendency in the bud and blotted Rosemary out for the rest of the evening . But not even the grimmest of amiable dragons can altogether prevent a certain subtle language of eye and smile and eloquent silence ; and so the minister 's courtship progressed after a fashion . But if it was ever to reach a climax that climax must come when Ellen was away . And Ellen was so seldom away , especially in winter . She found her own fireside the pleasantest place in the world , she vowed . Gadding had no attraction for her . She was fond of company but she wanted it at home .
Mr. Meredith had almost been driven to the conclusion that he must write to Rosemary what he wanted to say , when Ellen casually announced one evening that she was going XXXXX a silver wedding next Saturday night .
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