"These Two came before Me Hand in Hand" (1898) by Maurice Greiffenhagen, 1862-1931

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These Two came before Me Hand in Hand

Maurice Greiffenhagen

1898

Lithograph

12.3 by 8.1 cm, page 389, framed

Dickens's George Silverman's Explanation in the The Fireside Edition

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Passage illustrated: "So passed more than another year; every day a year in its number of my mixed impressions of grave pleasure and acute pain; and then these two, being of age and free to act legally for themselves, came before me hand in hand (my hair being now quite white), and entreated me that I would unite them together. "And indeed, dear tutor," said Adelina, "it is but consistent in you that you should do this thing for us, seeing that we should never have spoken together that first time but for you, and that but for you we could never have met so often afterwards." [continued below]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated (Continued)

The whole of which was literally true; for I had availed myself of my many business attendances on, and conferences with, my lady, to take Mr. Granville to the house, and leave him in the outer room with Adelina.

I knew that my lady would object to such a marriage for her daughter, or to any marriage that was other than an exchange of her for stipulated lands, goods, and moneys. But looking on the two, and seeing with full eyes that they were both young and beautiful; and knowing that they were alike in the tastes and acquirements that will outlive youth and beauty; and considering that Adelina had a fortune now, in her own keeping; and considering further that Mr. Granville, though for the present poor, was of a good family that had never lived in a cellar in Preston; and believing that their love would endure, neither having any great discrepancy to find out in the other, — I told them of my readiness to do this thing which Adelina asked of her dear tutor, and to send them forth, husband and wife, into the shining world with golden gates that awaited them. [Chapter 9, pp. 388-89]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times, Hunted Down, Holiday Romance, & George Silverman's Explanation. Illustrated by Fred Walker and Maurice Greiffenhagen. The Fireside Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Henry Froude; New York: Oxford University Press American Branch, 1898. Volume 12.

Last modified 15 January 2015