six in the
evening
But my experience is that human nature do n't alter so much according to distance from London as we fancy it does , and that husbands have their troubles same as wives all the world over . Anyhow , I 've come across a German husband or two as did n't carry about with him any sign of the slave driver such as you might notice , at all events not in his own house ; and I know for a fact that Meister Anton , which was the name of the chap I 'm telling you about , could n't have been much worse off , not even if he 'd been an Englishman born and bred . There were no children to occupy her mind , so she just devoted herself to him and the work-girls , and made things hum , as they say in America , for all of them . As for the girls , they got away at six in the evening , and not many of them stopped more than the first month . But the old man , not being able to give notice , had to put up with an average of eighteen hours a day of it . And even when , as was sometimes the case , he managed to get away for an hour or two in the evening for a quiet talk with a few of us over a glass of beer , he could never be quite happy , thinking of what was accumulating for him at home . Of course everybody as knew him knew of his troubles -- for a scolding wife ai n't the sort of thing as can be hid under a bushel , -- and was sorry for him , he being as amiable and good-tempered a fellow as ever lived , and most of us spent our time with him advising him for his good .