midnight
she demanded fiercely . Chester was uncomfortable . Much as he loved his mother , he felt , and always had felt , an awe of her and an impatient dislike of her dramatic ways of speaking and acting . He reflected , resentfully , that no other young man in Avonlea , who had been paying a friendly call , would be met by his mother at midnight and held up in such tragic fashion to account for himself . He tried vainly to loosen her hold upon his arm , but he understood quite well that he must give her an answer . Being strictly straight-forward by nature and upbringing , he told the truth , albeit with more anger in his tone than he had ever shown to his mother before . `` Yes , '' he said shortly .