These apprehensions, however, she tried to check, considering that they were probably the effect of a melancholy imagination, which her father's situation, and a consideration of her own circumstances, had made sensible to every impression.
They passed slowly on, for they were now almost in darkness, which, together with the unevenness of the ground, and the frequent roots of old trees, that shot up above the soil, made it necessary to proceed with caution.

On a sudden Michael stopped the carriage; and, as St.
Aubert looked from the window to enquire the cause, he perceived a figure at some distance moving up the avenue.

The dusk would not permit him to distinguish what it was, but he bade Michael go on.
'This seems a wild place,' said Michael; 'there is no house hereabout, don't your honour think we had better turn back ?' 'Go a little farther, and if we see no house then, we will return to the road,' replied St.Aubert.
Michael proceeded with reluctance, and the extreme slowness of his pace made St.Aubert look again from the window to hasten him, when again he saw the same figure.

He was somewhat startled: probably the gloominess of the spot made him more liable to alarm than usual; however this might be, he now stopped Michael, and bade him call to the person in the avenue.
'Please your honour, he may be a robber,' said Michael.

'It does not please me,' replied St.Aubert, who could not forbear smiling at the simplicity of his phrase, 'and we will, therefore, return to the road, for I see no probability of meeting here with what we seek.' Michael turned about immediately, and was retracing his way with alacrity, when a voice was heard from among the trees on the left.