six in the morning
For three days Mrs. Britling had to feed her new lodgers -- the kitchen motors had as usual gone astray -- and she did so in a style that made their boastings about their billet almost insufferable to the rest of their battery . The billeting allowance at that time was ninepence a head , and Mr. Britling , ashamed of making a profit out of his country , supplied not only generous firing and lighting , but unlimited cigarettes , cards and games , illustrated newspapers , a cocoa supper with such little surprises as sprats and jam roly-poly , and a number of more incidental comforts . The men arrived fasting under the command of two very sage middle-aged corporals , and responded to Mrs. Britling 's hospitalities by a number of good resolutions , many of which they kept . They never made noises after half-past ten , or at least only now and then when a singsong broke out with unusual violence ; they got up and went out at five or six in the morning without a sound ; they were almost inconveniently helpful with washing-up and tidying round . In quite a little time Mrs. Britling 's mind had adapted itself to the spectacle of half-a-dozen young men in khaki breeches and shirts performing their toilets in and about her scullery , or improvising an unsanctioned game of football between the hockey goals . These men were not the miscellaneous men of the new armies ; they were the earlier Territorial type with no heroics about them ; they came from the midlands ; and their two middle-aged corporals kept them well in hand and ruled them like a band of brothers . But they had an illegal side , that developed in directions that set Mr. Britling theorising .