eleven o'clock
`` Why do n't you tell him what folks think ? '' was a frequent question ; but after a first venture even the most intimate and valiant friends were sure to mind their own business , as the indignant captain bade them . Two of them had been partially won over to Mrs. French 's side by a taste of her good cooking . In fact , these were Captain Dunn and Captain Allister , who , at the eleven o'clock rendezvous , reported their wives as absent at the County Conference , and were promptly bidden to a chowder dinner by the independent Captain Ball , who gloried in the fact that neither of his companions would dare to ask a friend home unexpectedly . Our hero promised his guests that what they did not find in eatables they should make up in drinkables , and actually produced a glistening decanter of Madeira that had made several voyages in his father 's ships while he himself was a boy . There were several casks and long rows of cobwebby bottles in the cellar , which had been provided against possible use in case of illness , but the captain rarely touched them , though he went regularly every morning for a social glass of what he frankly persisted in calling his grog . The dinner party proved to be a noble occasion , and Mrs. French won the esteem of the three elderly seamen by her discreet behavior , as well as by the flavor of the chowder .