about midnight
`` Are you sure he was not fooling you ? '' said the mother . `` Very sure , '' replied the daughter , significantly holding up the Canada pin . `` Well , Vine , '' rejoined the former , with the air of one whose resolution is taken , `` you whip back to your post the same way you came ; and see that you keep him here till -- say about midnight , '' she added , exchanging a meaning glance with the daughter , whose hand was already on the latch to depart . No sooner had the intermingling tones of conversation in the other room apprised the woman that her daughter had there joined the unsuspecting suitor , than , hastily seizing bonnet and shawl , she noiselessly left the house and glided out into the road . After hesitating a moment here , respecting the course she should take , apparently , she made up to the log-fence enclosing an adjoining field , threw herself over it with the lightness of a boy , and , striking off directly west , almost flew over the ground till she reached the boundaries of their little opening ; when she fearlessly plunged into the dark and pathless recesses of the wood lying between her and the main road , to which she was evidently directing her course . `` There !