"Were these letters like ours in shape?"
"Very different. You would like to see some Norse runes?"
Mrs. Breakspear rose, and going to an oak press produced a small ebony casket, whose exterior was decorated with miniature carvings of Norse warriors engaged in combat.
Seating herself upon the hearth-rug beside the little fellow she unlocked the casket and lifted the lid. Within, upon the blue satin lining, there lay a silver ring, measuring about eight inches in circumference, and obviously of antique workmanship.
"This," said Mrs. Breakspear, "is a very old runic ring."
"How old?"
"More than two thousand years old. Tradition says that it was made by Odin himself. Do you know who he was, Idie?"
"The book calls him an imaginary deity. What does that mean?"
"It means a god who never lived."
"Then how can the ring have been made by Odin if there never was an Odin?"