about seven o'clock
`` Oh , do not torture me , wife , '' said I , `` with your off-taking way , for I could drink the Till dry , could I get at it . '' `` You shall have a proper sluicing in it in the morning , then , '' says the unfeeling wretch ; `` so just lay your head high till daylight comes in . '' Seeing I could not better myself , I flung my head down with a terrible clash on the side o ' the sofa ; while my thirst grew so intolerable , that the very breath which issued from my cramped lips was like to stifle me . In this indescribably miserable state I lay till about seven o'clock , when , by a sickly effort o ' strength , I got up , and tried to walk across the floor ; but my brain reeled at every step , and my limbs shook beneath me like willow wands . With my eyes swimming in dizziness , I next sought the washhand-basin , and plunging my head into the cauld water , I kept it there for nearly three minutes , drinking copiously at the same time ; and though the terrible stimulus brought on a severe shivering qualm , that lasted for nearly a quarter-of-an-hour , it cleared my faculties sufficiently to lay me open to a ' the violence o ' self-reproach . Having swallowed a beefsteak , with plenty o ' mustard and pepper , I felt comparatively recruited , at least in body ; and when the day had worn on to about four in the afternoon , I thought , as the reading-room was only at the next door , I might contrive to slip in unobserved , and get a sight o ' the papers . I accordingly stole out , and got into the room without meeting any one , where I found an auldish man in a brown tufted wig , who used glasses , sitting brooding owre the _ bad times _ fornent the window .