Could the interview have been with him?
"This was an idea calculated to rouse every faculty to contemplation.
An interview at that hour, in this darksome retreat, with a man of this mysterious but formidable character; a clandestine interview, and one which you afterwards endeavoured with so much solicitude to conceal! It was a fearful and portentous occurrence.

I could not measure his power, or fathom his designs.

Had he rifled from you the secret of your love, and reconciled you to concealment and noctural meetings?
I scarcely ever spent a night of more inquietude.
"I knew not how to act.

The ascertainment of this man's character and views seemed to be, in the first place, necessary.

Had he openly preferred his suit to you, we should have been impowered to make direct inquiries; but since he had chosen this obscure path, it seemed reasonable to infer that his character was exceptionable.