"Weel, it's likely enough, and a' the professors from Edinburgh couldna' gie a better reason. I wish you were aye here, mam, to answer a' oor deeficulties sae readily. Now, here's the altar that we foond last week. There's an inscreeption. They tell me it's Latin, and it means that the men o' this fort give thanks to God for their safety." They examined the old worn stone. There was a large deeply-cut "VV" upon the top of it. "What does 'VV' stand for?" asked Brown. "Naebody kens," the guide answered. "_Valeria Victrix_," said the lady softly. Her face was paler than ever, her eyes far away, as one who peers down the dim aisles of overarching centuries. "What's that?" asked her husband sharply. She started as one who wakes from sleep. "What were we talking about?" she asked. "About this 'VV' upon the stone." "No doubt it was just the name of the Legion which put the altar up." "Aye, but you gave some special name." "Did I? How absurd! How should I ken what the name was?" "You said something--'_Victrix_,' I think." "I suppose I was guessing. It gives me the queerest feeling, this place, as if I were not myself, but some one else." "Aye, it's an uncanny place," said her husband, looking round with an expression almost of fear in his bold grey eyes. "I feel it mysel'. I think we'll just be wishin' you good evenin', Mr. Cunningham, and get back to Melrose before the dark sets in." Neither of them could shake off the strange impression which had been left upon them by their visit to the excavations. It was as if some miasma had risen from those damp trenches and passed into their blood. All the evening they were silent and thoughtful, but such remarks as they did make showed that the same subject was in the mind of each. Brown had a restless night, in which he dreamed a strange connected dream, so vivid that he woke sweating and shivering like a frightened horse. He tried to convey it all to his wife as they sat together at breakfast in the morning. "It was the clearest thing, Maggie," said he. "Nothing that has ever come to me in my waking life has been more clear than that. I feel as if these hands were sticky with blood." "Tell me of it--tell me slow," said she.