ten o’clock at night
His landlady , Mrs. Bardell -- the relict and sole executrix of a deceased custom-house officer -- was a comely woman of bustling manners and agreeable appearance , with a natural genius for cooking , improved by study and long practice , into an exquisite talent . There were no children , no servants , no fowls . The only other inmates of the house were a large man and a small boy ; the first a lodger , the second a production of Mrs. Bardell 's . The large man was always home precisely at ten o'clock at night , at which hour he regularly condensed himself into the limits of a dwarfish French bedstead in the back parlour ; and the infantine sports and gymnastic exercises of Master Bardell were exclusively confined to the neighbouring pavements and gutters . Cleanliness and quiet reigned throughout the house ; and in it Mr. Pickwick 's will was law . To any one acquainted with these points of the domestic economy of the establishment , and conversant with the admirable regulation of Mr. Pickwick 's mind , his appearance and behaviour on the morning previous to that which had been fixed upon for the journey to Eatanswill would have been most mysterious and unaccountable . He paced the room to and fro with hurried steps , popped his head out of the window at intervals of about three minutes each , constantly referred to his watch , and exhibited many other manifestations of impatience very unusual with him .