half past five
He seemed to speak of them as one might speak generically of Hodge , which had struck Malloring as singular , it not being his habit to see anything in common between an individual case , especially on his own estate , and the ethics of a general proposition . The place for general propositions was undoubtedly the House of Commons , where they could be supported one way or the other , out of blue books . He had little use for them in private life , where innumerable things such as human nature and all that came into play . He had stared rather hard at his host when Stanley had followed up that first remark with : `` I 'm bound to say , I should n't care to have to get up at half past five , and go out without a bath ! '' What that had to do with the land problem or the regulation of village morality Malloring had been unable to perceive . It all depended on what one was accustomed to ; and in any case threw no light on the question , as to whether or not he was to tolerate on his estate conduct of which his wife and himself distinctly disapproved . At the back of national life there was always this problem of individual conduct , especially sexual conduct -- without regularity in which , the family , as the unit of national life , was gravely threatened , to put it on the lowest ground .