About noon
Minima ceased to prattle ; and I began to shiver a little , more from an inward dread of the utterly unknown future , than from any chill of the easterly wind . The road was very desolate . Not a creature had we seen for an hour or two , from whom I could inquire if we were on the high-road to Granville . About noon we had passed a roadside cross , standing where three ways met , and below it a board had pointed toward Granville . I had followed its direction in confidence , but now I began to feel somewhat anxious . This road , along which the grass was growing , was strangely solitary and dreary . It brought us after a while to the edge of a common , stretching before us , drear and brown , as far as my eye could reach .