ten o'clock
We were thorny people . Quarrels were frequent . My mother had a phrase which set my teeth on edge -- ` Do n't you talk , Martin , until you are earning your living ' -- the sort of remark that stings and stays in a boy 's memory as something unfair . There was a great row in the end , one night at ten o'clock , when I was sixteen , and I left the house and tramped into London . '' `` What in the world did you do ? '' cried Stella . `` I shipped as a boy on a fruit-tramp for Valencia in Spain .