VALLEY

THE IMPOSSIBLE WORD 221man in the Glen, not even excepting Dr. Blythe, whohad a better grasp of such things."I think it is just as well to be interested in thingsas long as you live," she had said. "If you're not, itdoesn't seem to me that there's much difference betweenthe quick and the dead."He liked her pleasant, deep, nimbly voice; he likedthe hearty laugh with which she always ended up somejolly and well-told story. She never gave him digsshe neverabout his children as other Glen women did ;bored him with local gossip; she had no malice andno pettiness. She was always splendidly sincere. Mr.Meredith, who had picked up Miss Cornelia's way ofclassifying people, considered that Ellen belonged tothe race of Joseph. Altogether, an admirable womanfor a sister-in-law. Nevertheless, a man did not wanteven the most admirable of women around when hewas proposing to another woman. And Ellen wasalways around. She did not insist on talking to Mr.Meredith herself all the time. She letRosemary havea fair share of him. Many evenings, indeed, Elleneffaced herself almost totally, sitting back in the cornerwith St. George on her lap, and letting Mr. Meredithand Rosemary talk and sing and read books together.Sometimes they quite forgot her presence. But iftheir conversation or choice of duets ever betrayedthe least tendency to what Ellen considered philandering,Ellen promptly nipped that tendency in the budand blotted Rosemary out for the rest of the evening.