er (at the time of the
Trial) that the honor of our family has been saved, and that I have
escaped a shameful death on the scaffold. Is there any limit to the
obligation that he has laid on me, after doing me such a service as this?
There is no limit. The man who loves Lucilla and the brother who has
saved my life are one. I am bound to leave him free--I do leave him
free--to win Lucilla by open and loyal means, if he can. As soon as Herr
Grosse considers that she is fit to bear the disclosure, let her be told
of the error into which she has fallen (through my fault)--let her read
these lines, purposely written to meet her eye as well as yours--and let
my brother tell her afterwards what has passed to-night in this house
between himself and me. She loves him now, believing him to be Oscar.
Will she love him still, after she has learnt to know him under his own
name? The answer to that question rests with Time. If it is an answer in
Nugent's favor, I have already arranged to set aside from my income a
sufficient yearly sum to place my brother in a position to begin his
married life. I wish to leave his genius free to assert itself,
untrammeled by pecuniary cares. Possessing, as I do, far more than enough
for my own simple wants, I can dedicate my spare money to no better and
nobler use than this.

"There is my duty towards Nugent--as I see it.

"What I have decided on you now know. What I have done can be told in two
words. I have left Browndown for ever. I have gone, to live or die (as
God pleases) under the blow that has fallen on me, far away from you all.

"Perhaps, when years have passed, and when their children are growing up
round them, I may see Lucilla again, and may take as the hand of my
sister, the hand of the beloved woman who might once have been my wife.
This may happen, if I live. If I die, you will none of you know it. My
death shall not cast its shadow of sadness on their lives. Forgive me and
forget me; and keep, as I keep, that first and noblest of all mortal
hopes--the hope of the life to come.

"I enclose, when there is need for you to write to me, the address of my
bankers in London. They will have their instructions. If you love me, if
you pity me, abstain from attempting to shake my resolution. You may
distress me--but you will never change me. Wait to write, until Nugent
has had the opportunity of pleading his own cause, and Lucilla has
decided on her future life.

"Once more, I thank you f