seven o’clock
Having always been an early riser and having now no organ to engage him in sweet converse every morning , it was his habit to take a long walk before going to the Temple ; and naturally inclining , as a stranger , towards those parts of the town which were conspicuous for the life and animation pervading them , he became a great frequenter of the market-places , bridges , quays , and especially the steam-boat wharves ; for it was very lively and fresh to see the people hurrying away upon their many schemes of business or pleasure , and it made Tom glad to think that there was that much change and freedom in the monotonous routine of city lives . In most of these morning excursions Ruth accompanied him . As their landlord was always up and away at his business -LRB- whatever that might be , no one seemed to know -RRB- at a very early hour , the habits of the people of the house in which they lodged corresponded with their own . Thus they had often finished their breakfast , and were out in the summer air , by seven o'clock . After a two hours ' stroll they parted at some convenient point ; Tom going to the Temple , and his sister returning home , as methodically as you please . Many and many a pleasant stroll they had in Covent Garden Market ; snuffing up the perfume of the fruits and flowers , wondering at the magnificence of the pineapples and melons ; catching glimpses down side avenues , of rows and rows of old women , seated on inverted baskets , shelling peas ; looking unutterable things at the fat bundles of asparagus with which the dainty shops were fortified as with a breastwork ; and , at the herbalist 's doors , gratefully inhaling scents as of veal-stuffing yet uncooked , dreamily mixed up with capsicums , brown-paper , seeds , even with hints of lusty snails and fine young curly leeches . Many and many a pleasant stroll they had among the poultry markets , where ducks and fowls , with necks unnaturally long , lay stretched out in pairs , ready for cooking ; where there were speckled eggs in mossy baskets , white country sausages beyond impeachment by surviving cat or dog , or horse or donkey ; new cheeses to any wild extent , live birds in coops and cages , looking much too big to be natural , in consequence of those receptacles being much too little ; rabbits , alive and dead , innumerable .