nine o'clock
`` Maggie will be sad t ' hear th ' job is gone , but she would have took it harder t ' know her Tim was wastin ' his time varnishin ' th ' slab side of a spongy goat . '' On the sixteenth of June Mr. Rollin Billings entered his home at Westcote very much later than usual , and stealing upstairs , like a thief in the night , he undressed and dropped into bed . In two minutes he was asleep , and it was no wonder , for by that time it was five minutes after three in the morning , and Mr. Billings 's usual bedtime was ten o'clock . Even when he was delayed at his office he made it an invariable rule to catch the nine o'clock train home . When Mrs. Billings awoke the next -- or , rather , that same -- morning , she gazed a minute at the thin , innocent face of her husband , and was in the satisfied frame of mind that takes an unexpected train delay as a legitimate excuse , when she happened to cast her eyes upon Mr. Billings 's coat , which was thrown carelessly over the foot of the bed . Protruding from one of the side pockets was a patent nursing-bottle , half full of milk . Instantly Mrs. Billings was out of bed and searching Mr. Billings 's other pockets .