turned the key upon them. Well, I must consider this passage about
the two countries. My mother used to say something of the kind. She
would say that when our bodies sleep our souls awake, and that
whatever withers here ripens yonder, and that harvests are snatched
from us that they may feed invisible people. But the meaning of the
book must be different, for only fools and women have thoughts like
that; their thoughts were never written upon the walls of Babylon.
[He sees the ANGEL.] What are you? Who are you? I think I saw some
that were like you in my dreams when I was a child--that bright
thing, that dress that is the color of embers! But I have done with
dreams, I have done with dreams.

ANGEL. I am the Angel of the Most High God.

WISE MAN. Why have you come to me?

ANGEL. I have brought you a message.

WISE MAN. What message have yon got for me?

ANGEL. You will die within the hour. You will die when the last
grains have fallen in this glass. [He turns the hour-glass.]

WISE MAN. My time to die has not come. I have my pupils. I have a
young wife and children that I cannot leave. Why must I die?

ANGEL. You must die because no souls have passed over the threshold
of heaven since you came into this country. The threshold is
grassy, and the gates are rusty, and the angels that keep watch
there are lonely.