six in the evening
It was a common occurrence , as I well knew , for children of quite the best families to be brought up by wood choppers . Fairies , the best intentioned in the world , but born muddlers , were generally responsible for these mishaps , which , however , always became righted in time for the wedding . Or even had he been a pork butcher , and there were many in the neighbourhood , I could have thought of him as a swineherd , and so found precedent for hope . But a fishmonger -- from six in the evening a fried fishmonger ! I searched history in vain . Fried fishmongers were without the pale . So gradually our meetings became less frequent , though I knew that every afternoon she waited in the quiet Stainsby Road , where dwelt in semi-detached , six-roomed villas the aristocracy of Poplar , and that after awhile , for arriving late at times I have been witness to the sad fact , tears would trace pathetic patterns upon her dust-besprinkled cheeks ; and with the advent of the world-illuminating Barbara , to which event I am drawing near , they ceased altogether .