twelve o'clock
It is the very last thing I expected . I thought nobody drank nowadays . ' ` Very few people get drunk , my dear Mrs. Wendover , ' replied the doctor ; ` but , unhappily , though there is very little drunkenness , there is a great deal of what is called `` pegging '' -- an intermittent kind of tippling which goes on all day long , beginning very early and ending very late . A man , whose occupation in life is headwork , begins to think he wants a stimulant -- begins by having his brandy and soda at twelve o'clock perhaps ; then finds he ca n't get on without it after eleven ; then takes it before breakfast -- in lieu of breakfast ; and goes on with brandy and soda at intervals till dinner-time . At dinner he has no appetite , tries to create one with a bottle of dry champagne , eats very little , but dines on the champagne , feels an unaccountable depression of spirits later on in the evening , and takes more brandy , without soda this time ; and so on , and so on ; till , after a period of sleeplessness , he begins to have ugly dreams , then to see waking visions , hear imaginary voices , stumble upon the edge of an imaginary precipice . If he is an elderly man he gets shaky in the lower limbs , then his hands become habitually tremulous , especially in the early morning , when he is like a figure hung on wires -- and so on , and so on ; and unless he pulls himself up by a great moral effort , the chances are that he will have a sharp attack of _ delirium tremens _ . ' ` You do not fear such an attack for my husband ?