eleven o’clock
The first mention of the word `` dinner '' reminds Elvira -LRB- quick to perceive that argument is brewing , and alive to the advantage of getting in first -RRB- that twice the month before he had dined out , not returning till the small hours of the morning . What she wants to know is where this sort of thing is going to end ? If the purpose of Freemasonry is the ruin of the home and the desertion of women , then all she has to say -- it turns out to be quite a good deal . Adolphus , when able to get in a word , suggests that eleven o'clock at the latest can hardly be described as the `` small hours of the morning '' : the fault with women is that they never will confine themselves to the simple truth . From that point onwards , as can be imagined , the scene almost wrote itself . They have passed through all the customary stages , and are planning , with exaggerated calm , arrangements for the separation which each now feels to be inevitable , when a knock comes to the front-door , and there enters a mutual friend . Their hasty attempts to cover up the traces of mental disorder with which the atmosphere is strewed do not deceive him .