twelve o'clock
He covered sheets of paper with calculations about how long the hundred pounds would last if he gave away for board and lodgings ten shillings , nine shillings , seven and sixpence a week . At last , with sore misgivings , he went to live with a family who took him for eight shillings . Less than a month afterwards he died . Our dinner-hour was twelve o'clock , and Hendry , for a not incomprehensible reason , called this meal his brose . Frequently , however , while I was there to share the expense , broth was put on the table , with beef to follow in clean plates , much to Hendry 's distress , for the comfortable and usual practice was to eat the beef from the broth-plates . Jess , however , having three whole white plates and two cracked ones , insisted on the meals being taken genteelly , and her husband , with a look at me , gave way . `` Half a pound o ' boiling beef , an ' a penny bone , '' was Leeby 's almost invariable order when she dealt with the flesher , and Jess had always neighbours poorer than herself who got a plateful of the broth .