The gates ajar. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

92 The Gates Ajar.
not as well be done by people from this world
as from anywhere else? Besides, there is
another point, and a reasonable one, to be
made. The word angel in the original * means,
strictly, a messenger. It applies to any servant
of God, animate or inanimate. An east wind
is as much an angel as Michael. Again, the
generic terms,'spirits,''gods,''sons of God,'
are used interchangeably for saints and for
angels. So, you see, I fancy that I find a way
for you and Roy and me and all of us, straight
into the shining ministry. Mary, Mary,
would n't you like to go this very afternoon?"
She lay back in the grass, with her face upturned to the sky, and drew a long breath,
wearily. I do not think she meant me to hear
it. I did not answer her, for it came over me
with such a hopeless thrill, how good it
would be to be taken to Roy, there by his
beautiful grave, with the ivy and the Mayflowers and the sunlight and the clover-leaves
round about; and that it could not be, and
how long it was to wait, - it came over me so
that I could not speak.
"There!" she said, suddenly rousing, "what
a thoughtless, wicked thing it was to say I
* ayyeXofs.