sual methods of inquiry pursued in such cases; and took the
return train to the country, with my mind alternating between despair
when I thought of Lucilla, and anger when I thought of the twin-brothers.
In the first bitterness of my disappointment, I was quite as indignant
with Oscar as with Nugent. With all my heart I cursed the day which had
brought the one and the other to Dimchurch.

As we lengthened our distance from London, flying smoothly the tranquil
woods and fields, my mind, with time to help it, began to recover its
balance. Little by little, the unexpected revelation of firmness and
decision in Oscar's conduct--heartily as I still deplored and blamed that
conduct--began to have a new effect on my mind. I now looked back in
amazement and self-reproach, at my own superficial estimate of the
characters of the twin-brothers.

Thinking it over uninterruptedly, with no one in the carriage but myself,
I arrived at a conclusion which strongly influenced my conduct in guiding
Lucilla through the troubles and perils that were still to come.

Our physical constitutions have, as I take it, more to do with the
actions which determine other people's opinions of us (as well as with
the course of our own lives) than we generally suppose. A man with
delicately-strung nerves says and does things which often lead us to
think more meanly of him than he deserves. It is his great misfortune
constantly to present himself at his worst. On the other hand, a man
provided with nerves vigorously constituted, is provided also with a
constitutional health and hardihood which express themselves brightly in
his manners, and which lead to a mistaken impression that his nature is
what it appears to be on the surface. Having good health, he has good
spirits. Having good spirits, he wins as an agreeable companion on the
persons with whom he comes in contact--although he may be hiding all the
while, under an outer covering which is physically wholesome, an inner
nature which is morally diseased. In the last of these typical men, I saw
reflected--Nugent. In the first--Oscar. All that was feeblest and poorest
in Oscar's nature had shown itself on the surface in past times, to the
concealment of its stronger and its nobler side. There had been something
hidden in this supersensitive man, who had shrunk under all the small
trials of his life in our village, which had proved firm enough, when the
greatness of the need called on it, to sustain the