two o'clock in the morning
On Wednesday evenings , Mrs. Bindle went to chapel to engage in the weekly temperance service . As temperance meetings always engendered in Mrs. Bindle the missionary spirit , Bindle selected Wednesday for what he called his `` night out . '' If he got home early , it was to encounter Mrs. Bindle 's prophetic views as to the hereafter of those who spent their leisure in gin-palaces . At first Mrs. Bindle had shown her resentment by waiting up until Bindle returned ; but as he made that return later each Wednesday , she had at last capitulated , and it became no longer necessary for him to walk the streets until two o'clock in the morning , in order to slip upstairs unchallenged as to where he expected to go when he died . One Wednesday night , as he was on his way home , whistling `` Bubbles '' at the stretch of his powers , he observed the figure of a girl standing under a lamp-post , her head bent , her shoulders moving convulsively . '' ` Ullo -- ` ullo ! '' he cried .