Charles Dickens - Charles Dickens' Most Influential Works (Illustrated)

“I am greatly changed. I wonder you know me.”

The freshness of her beauty was indeed gone, but its indescribable majesty and its indescribable charm remained. Those attractions in it, I had seen before; what I had never seen before, was the saddened, softened light of the once proud eyes; what I had never felt before was the friendly touch of the once insensible hand.

We sat down on a bench that was near, and I said, “After so many years, it is strange that we should thus meet again, Estella, here where our first meeting was! Do you often come back?”

“I have never been here since.”

“Nor I.”

The moon began to rise, and I thought of the placid look at the white ceiling, which had passed away. The moon began to rise, and I thought of the pressure on my hand when I had spoken the last words he had heard on earth.

Estella was the next to break the silence that ensued between us.

“I have very often hoped and intended to come back, but have been prevented by many circumstances. Poor, poor old place!”

The silvery mist was touched with the first rays of the moonlight, and the same rays touched the tears that dropped from her eyes. Not knowing that I saw them, and setting herself to get the better of them, she said quietly, —

“Were you wondering, as you walked along, how it came to be left in this condition?”

“Yes, Estella.”

“The ground belongs to me. It is the only possession I have not relinquished. Everything else has gone from me, little by little, but I have kept this. It was the subject of the only determined resistance I made in all the wretched years.”

“Is it to be built on?”

“At last, it is. I came here to take leave of it before its change. And you,” she said, in a voice of touching interest to a wanderer, — ”you live abroad still?”

“Still.”

“And do well, I am sure?”

“I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore — yes, I do well.”

“I have often thought of you,” said Estella.

“Have you?”

“Of late, very often. There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth. But since my duty has not been incompatible with the admission of that remembrance, I have given it a place in my heart.”

“You have always held your place in my heart,” I answered.

And we were silent again until she spoke.

“I little thought,” said Estella, “that I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so.”

“Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing. To me, the remembrance of our last parting has been ever mournful and painful.”

“But you said to me,” returned Estella, very earnestly, “‘God bless you, God forgive you!’ And if you could say that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now, — now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape. Be as considerate and good to me as you were, and tell me we are friends.”

“We are friends,” said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench.

“And will continue friends apart,” said Estella.

I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

Table of Contents Table of Contents GREAT EXPECTATIONS GREAT EXPECTATIONS Table of Contents OUR MUTUAL FRIEND OUR MUTUAL FRIEND Table of Contents DAVID COPPERFIELD THE PICKWICK PAPERS OLIVER TWIST A CHRISTMAS CAROL HARD TIMES A TALE OF TWO CITIES LITTLE DORRIT BLEAK HOUSE COLLECTED LETTERS THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS by John Forster

Table of Contents Table of Contents GREAT EXPECTATIONS GREAT EXPECTATIONS Table of Contents OUR MUTUAL FRIEND OUR MUTUAL FRIEND Table of Contents DAVID COPPERFIELD THE PICKWICK PAPERS OLIVER TWIST A CHRISTMAS CAROL HARD TIMES A TALE OF TWO CITIES LITTLE DORRIT BLEAK HOUSE COLLECTED LETTERS THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS by John Forster

Book the First. The Cup and the Lip

Chapter 1. On the Look Out

Chapter 2. The Man from Somewhere

Chapter 3. Another Man

Chapter 4. The R. Wilfer Family

Chapter 5. Boffin’s Bower

Chapter 6. Cut Adrift

Chapter 7. Mr Wegg Looks after Himself

Chapter 8. Mr Boffin in Consultation

Chapter 9. Mr and Mrs Boffin in Consultation

Chapter 10. A Marriage Contract

Chapter 11. Podsnappery

Chapter 12. The Sweat of an Honest Man’s Brow

Chapter 13. Tracking the Bird of Prey

Chapter 14. The Bird of Prey Brought Down

Chapter 15. Two New Servants

Chapter 16. Minders and Re-minders

Chapter 17. A Dismal Swamp

Book the Second. Birds of a Feather

Chapter 1. Of an Educational Character

Chapter 2. Still Educational

Chapter 3. A Piece of Work

Chapter 4. Cupid Prompted

Chapter 5. Mercury Prompting

Chapter 6. A Riddle Without an Answer

Chapter 7. In which a Friendly Move is Originated

Chapter 8. In which an Innocent Elopement Occurs

Chapter 9. In which the Orphan Makes His Will

Chapter 10. A Successor

Chapter 11. Some Affairs of the Heart

Chapter 12. More Birds of Prey

Chapter 13. A Solo and a Duett

Chapter 14. Strong of Purpose

Chapter 15. The Whole Case so Far

Chapter 16. An Anniversary Occasion

Book the Third. A Long Lane

Chapter 1. Lodgers in Queer Street

Chapter 2. A Respected Friend in a New Aspect

Chapter 3. The Same Respected Friend in more Aspects than One

Chapter 4. A Happy Return of the Day

Chapter 5. The Golden Dustman Falls into Bad Company

Chapter 6. The Golden Dustman Falls into Worse Company

Chapter 7. The Friendly Move Takes Up a Strong Position

Chapter 8. The End of a Long Journey

Chapter 9. Somebody Becomes the Subject of a Prediction

Chapter 10. Scouts Out

Chapter 11. In the Dark

Chapter 12. Meaning Mischief

Chapter 13. Give a Dog a Bad Name, and Hang Him

Chapter 14. Mr Wegg Prepares a Grindstone for Mr Boffin’s Nose

Chapter 15. The Golden Dustman at His Worst

Chapter 16. The Feast of the Three Hobgoblins

Chapter 17. A Social Chorus

Book the Fourth. A Turning

Chapter 1. Setting Traps

Chapter 2. The Golden Dustman Rises a Little

Chapter 3. The Golden Dustman Sinks Again

Chapter 4. A Runaway Match

Chapter 5. Concerning the Mendicant’s Bride

Chapter 6. A Cry for Help

Chapter 7. Better to be Abel than Cain

Chapter 8. A Few Grains of Pepper

Chapter 9. Two Places Vacated

Chapter 10. The Dolls’ Dressmaker Discovers a Word

Chapter 11. Effect is Given to the Dolls’ Dressmaker’s Discovery

Chapter 12. The Passing Shadow

Chapter 13. Showing How the Golden Dustman Helped to Scatter Dust

Chapter 14. Checkmate to the Friendly Move

Chapter 15. What was Caught in the Traps that were Set