midnight
`` At Bonnydale ! '' `` Boddyvale ? I never heard of the place before in my life , sir , '' answered the runaway servant . Possibly the man under examination was not wholly responsible for his distortion of the name of Captain Passford 's estate , as Christy was beginning to reap the penalty of his imprudence the night before , in exposing himself barefooted and half-clothed to the chill midnight air , and was developing a cold in the head that already affected his enunciation . `` Bonnydale ! '' repeated the officer , after using his handkerchief , and thus improving his utterance of the word . `` I never heard of the place before , sir , '' persisted the seaman .