midnight
At first when her husband , at the close of his day 's work , sidled off to the `` Turk 's Head , '' she pretended not to remark it . Indeed her fears were long in awaking . In all her life she had never tasted brandy , and knew nothing of its effects . That Dick Ellison fuddled himself upon it was notorious , and on her last visit to Wroote she had heard scandalous tales of John Romley , who had come to haunt the taverns in and about Epworth , singing songs and soaking with the riff-raff of the neighbourhood until turned out at midnight to roll homeward to his lonely lodgings . She connected drunkenness with uproarious mirth , boon companionship , set orgies . Of secret unsocial tippling she had as yet no apprehension . Even before the birth of his second child the tavern had become necessary to Mr. Wright , not only at the close of work , but in the morning , between jobs .