3-034-829 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Hour But Not The Man," by Mr. Holyoake, in the exhibition of the new British Institution, 1871. Engraving of a painting. 'In common gallantry one must sympathise with, these young ladies' anxiety, yet there is nothing so serious implied that we may not enjoy the humour of the situation; for is it not a perverse tendency of human nature, in young and old alike, covertly to take delight in the sentimental distresses of others?...Of the inmates of the embowered seclusion of this rustic dwelling we know nothing beyond the visible fact that among the number are two very pretty girls - the one fair, bashful, and retiring, standing in a rather disconsolate attitude at the threshold of the inner door; the other a "nut-brown maid," impulsive and saucy, coming out to peep beneath the laurel shade for the expected one...But he cometh not: "the hour " has arrived, "but not the man." What sort of man can he be if he can resist such attractions? or, rather, what insurmountable obstacle, or accident delays his keeping the tryst at these fairies' bower?'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.