five o'clock
`` Bridge . I will be amiable enough by noon time . '' `` Yes , you 're endurable by noon time , as a rule . When you 're forty you may be tolerated after five o'clock ; when you 're fifty your wife and children might even venture to emerge from the cellar after dinner -- '' `` Wife ! '' `` I said wife , '' replied Kerns , as he calmly watched his man . He had managed it well , so far , and he was wise enough not to overdo it . An interval of silence was what the situation required .