About eleven o'clock
Mr. Lavement had attempted more than once to introduce a vegetable diet into his family , by launching out into the praise of roots and greens , and decrying the use of flesh , both as a physician and philosopher ; but all his rhetoric could not make one proselyte to his opinion , and even the wife of his bosom declared against the proposal . One afternoon , when her husband was abroad , and his daughter gone to visit , this lady ordered me to call a hackney-coach , in which she and the captain drove towards Covent Garden . Miss came home in the evening , and , supping at her usual hour , went to bed . About eleven o'clock my master entered , and asked if his wife was gone to sleep : upon which I told him , my mistress went out in the afternoon , and was not yet returned . This was like a clap of thunder to the poor apothecary , who starting back , cried , `` Mort de ma vie ! vat you tell a me ? My vife not at home ! ''