one o'clock in the morning
They were passing the Plaza Hotel , and his friend was peering up at its square white bulk . Obviously , he was striving to locate Hermione 's room . Most probably he failed , for it is no easy matter to pick out the windows of any particular set of rooms in a huge building while rushing along at twenty-five or more miles an hour . Further , it was now past one o'clock in the morning , and most respectable people were in bed , so the solemn mass of the hotel was enlivened by very few rectangles of light . But Curtis fancied , as did Devar also , that the illuminated blinds of three windows on the second floor might possibly be those of Suite F. , and each wondered , if the surmise were correct , why her ladyship was remaining up so late . Devar resolved to say nothing , but Curtis felt that he must talk , if only for the sake of hearing his own voice . Usually a man of taciturn habit , the outcome of long vigils among an alien and often hostile race in a semi-civilized land , he had gone through so much during the five and a half hours which had unfolded their marvels since he quitted the dining-room of the Central Hotel , that he ached for human sympathy , even in a trivial matter of this sort .