midnight
Aleck had not expected so illustrious a visitor as `` the priest 's brother , '' and , though evidently gratified by my interest , was so painfully shy that it would have needed an expert barrister to draw out any satisfactory information from so bashful a witness . Luckily his mother had espied me from the window , and promptly appeared on the scene , and by means of her judicious prompting the youth was induced to tell his tale . It appeared that Aleck was out on the night in question at the unusual hour of twelve . He had been `` bidden , '' as his mother explained , to a marriage in the neighborhood , and his father had allowed him to accept the invitation on the condition of his return home by midnight . As is not unusual in such cases , the attractions of the dance had led the youth to postpone his departure , minute by minute , until it was questionable whether he could possibly reach home by the appointed time , even if he ran his best . Consequently he took all the short cuts he knew , and one of them led him by the old mill . I was well aware , from an anecdote related to me by Penny , that John Farquhar , the lad 's father , was a stern disciplinarian .