about nine in the evening
Sometimes a workman came in the morning ; a couple more might come in about dinner-time . Sometimes they took rashers and bits of steak out of their pockets . `` Wo n't you cook this for me , missis ? '' But it was not until about nine in the evening that the real business of the house began , and it continued till one , when the last straggler knocked for admittance . The house lived on its beds . The best rooms were sometimes let for eight shillings a night , and there were four beds which were let at fourpence a night in the cellar under the area where Esther stood by the great copper washing sheets , blankets , and counterpanes , when she was not cleaning the rooms upstairs . There was a double-bedded room underneath the kitchen , and over the landings , wherever a space could be found , the landlord , who was clever at carpentering work , had fitted up some sort of closet place that could be let as a bedroom .