What grand beeches!... He kept them in his memory, as a painter does, with all the fleck and knot in their bark, all the curves and angles of their boughs; and had often calculated the height and contents of a trunk to a nicety, as he stood looking at it. No wonder that, notwithstanding his desire to get on, he could not help pausing to look at a curious large beech which he had seen standing before him at a turning in the road, and convince himself that it was two trees welded together, but only one. For the rest of his life he remembered that moment when he was calmly remembering the beech, as a man remembers his last glimpse of the home where his youth was passed, before the road turned, and he saw it no more. The beech stood at the last turning before the Grove ended in an archway of boughs that let in the eastern light; and as Adam stepped away from the tree to continue his walk, his eye fell on two figures about twenty yards before him.... The two figures were standing opposite to each other, with clasped hands, about to part... bending to kiss.'

No wonder that Adam Bede himself remembers the moment just before he catches sight of Hetty Sorrel and Arthur Donnithorne" as a man remembers his last glimpse of the home where his youth was passed, before the road turned, and he saw it no more." No wonder: think of the many partings welded to what Adam Bede is about to see, the" two figures... standing opposite to each other, with clasped hands, about to part... bending to kiss." Think of the exile suffered