One summer night in a Tel Aviv hotel before the evening prayer, Rabbi Noson Tzvi Finkel gave a long lecture on ethics to a number of his former students. Before he finished, his wife interrupted him with a whisper, “They have wives.” In the midst of a most enlightening talk, he stopped and said, “We must start maariv already.”
One of those present said, “But our wives won’t mind.”
“First of all,” replied Rabbi Finkel, “I’m not sure that is so, and you have no right to cause your wives to wait. Secondly, my wife is surely hungry and I don’t have permission to make her wait.”
He refused to finish the lecture. Moreover, upon completion of the evening prayers, he made certain that everyone went home as soon as possible. ~ Tnuas Hamussar as quoted by R’ Zelig Pliskin