The gates ajar. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

The Gates Ajar. 219
all the learning of his schools and commentators and sit at the feet of a woman.
She talked with him for a time in her unobtrusive way, deferring, when she honestly could,
to his clerical judgment, and careful not to
wound him by any word; but frankly and
clearly, as she always talks.
When she rose to go he thanked her quietly.
"This is a somewhat novel train of thought
to me," he said; "I hope it may not prove an
unscriptural one. I have been reading the
book of Revelation to-day with these questions
especially in mind. We are never too old to
learn. Some passages may be capable of
other interpretations than I have formerly
given them. No matter what I wish, you see,
I must be guided by the Word of my God."
Auntie says that she never respected the man
so much as she did when, hearing those words,
she looked up into his haggard face, convulsed
with its human pain and longing.
"I hope you do not think that I am not
guided by the Word of God," she answered.
" I mean to be."
" I know you mean to be," he said cordially.
"I do not say that you are not. I may come
to see that you are, and that you are right.