y letter--with a space
left at the end for his postscript. While he was writing it, he asked me
to get something which happened to be up-stairs in my room. When I came
back, he had sealed the envelope--forgetting to show me his postscript.
It was not worth while to open the letter again; he told me what he had
written, and that did just as well.

[Note.--I must trouble you with a copy of what Nugent really did write.
It shows why he sent her out of the room, and closed the envelope before
she could come back. The postscript is also worthy of notice, in this
respect--that it plays a part in a page of my narrative which is still to
come.

Thus Nugent writes, in Oscar's name and character, to the rector of
Dimchurch. (I have already mentioned, as you will see in the
twenty-second chapter, that a close similarity of handwriting was one
among the other striking points of resemblance between the twins.)

"DEAR MR. FINCH,

"Lucilla's letter will have told you that I have come to my senses, and
that I am again paying my addresses to her as her affianced husband. My
principal object in adding these lines is to propose that we should
forget the past, and go on again as if nothing had happened.

"Nugent has behaved nobly. He absolves me from the engagements towards
him into which I so rashly entered, at our last interview before I left
Browndown. Most generously and amply he has redeemed his pledge to Madame
Pratolungo to discover the place of my retreat and to restore me to
Lucilla. For the present he remains abroad.

"If you favor me with a reply to this, I must warn you to be careful how
you write; for Lucilla is sure to ask to see your letter. Remember that
she only supposes me to have returned to her after a brief absence from
England, caused by a necessity for joining my brother on the Continent.
It will be also desirable to say nothing on the subject of my unfortunate
peculiarity of complexion. I have made it all right with Lucilla, and she
is getting accustomed to me. Still, the subject is a sore one; and the
less it is referred to the better.

Truly yours,

"OSCAR."

Unless I add a word of explanation here, you will hardly appreciate the
extraordinary skillfulness with which the deception is continued by means
of this postscript.

Written in Oscar's character (and representing Nugent as having done all
that he had promised me to do) it designedly omits the customary courtesy
of Oscar's style. The object of