hold a fragment of the ancient Roman way, Via Julia
Augusta," he began, introducing the bridge with a wave of his cane.
"When we think of this road in the past, what visions rise in the
mind--visions like--like mists on the mountain-tops floating away,
which--which merge in each other at dawning of day! In comparison with
the ancient Romans, the builders of this bridge, Hercules, the Lascaris,
even the Sarrasins (always with two r's), are _nowhere_. Roman feet
touched this very archway upon which my own unworthy shoes now stand."

We looked at his shoes with respect, the Professor (who had gone onward
to the Bone Caverns) not being there to contradict.

"The Romans," continued Inness, "never stayed long. They dropped here a
tomb, there an aqueduct, and then moved on. They were the first great
pedestrians. We cannot _see_ them, but we can imagine them. As Pope well
says,

"'While fancy brings the vanished piles to view,
And builds imaginary Rome anew.'"

"Ah, yes," said Mrs. Trescott, "the Romans, the Romans, how dreamy they
were! They always remind me of those lines:

"'Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound,
The primal sympathy,
Which, having been, must ever be!'"

This finished the bridge. As we had no idea what she meant, even Inness
deserted it, and we all went onward to the Bone Caverns. The caverns
were dark hollows in the cliff some distance above the road. From the
entrance of one of them issued a cloud of dust; the Professor was in
there digging.

"Let us ascend at once," said Mrs. Trescott, enthusiastically. "I wish
to stand in the very abode of the primitive man."

But it was something of a task to get her up; there was always a great
deal of loose drapery about Mrs. Trescott, which had a way of catching
on everything far and near. With her veil, her plumes, her lace shawl,
her long watch-chain, her dangling fan, her belt bag and scent bottle,
her parasol and basket, it was difficult to get her safely through any
narrow or bushy place. But to-day Verney gallantly undertook the feat:
he knew the advantages of propitiating the higher powers.

Men were quarrying the face of the Red Rocks at a dizzy height, hanging
suspended in mid-air by ropes in order to direct the blasting; below,
the patient horses were waiting to convey the great blocks of stone to
the town, and destroy, by their daily procession