nearly midnight
`` Why , Miss Hoffman found her , '' replied the purser quickly . `` She called one of the stewards . She had been sitting in the library reading until quite late and Rawaruska had retired early , for she was not a good sailor , they tell me . It must have been nearly midnight when De Guerre and a friend , pausing at the library door on their way from the smoking room , saw Miss Hoffman , and all three stopped in the Ritz restaurant for a bite to eat . `` De Guerre walked down the corridor with Miss Hoffman afterwards , '' he continued , `` and left her as she went into the room with his wife . Perhaps a minute later -- long enough anyway so that he had reached the other end of the corridor -- she screamed . She had turned on the light and had found Rawaruska lying half across the bed , unconscious .