nine o'clock
The very first one pleased his exacting taste , and he felt that the Bexley Sands Inn would be the very spot in which to write ; comfortable within , a trifle too large , perhaps , and at week-ends too full of people , but clean , well-kept , and sunny . It was a Friday evening , and the number of guests who arrived on the last train from Torquay was rather disturbing . The dining-room service was not interfered with , but Appleton made up his mind to smoke his pipe in his own sitting-room and go down to the lounge later to read the papers , when the crowd might have dispersed . At nine o'clock , accordingly , he descended , and was preparing to settle himself with the last `` Spectator '' when the young lady in the office observed : `` There 's a very good concert going on in the drawing-room , sir , if you enjoy music . No admittance , you know ; just a plate at the door as you leave -- quite optional . '' Appleton bowed his thanks , filled his pipe , and taking up his newspaper with a sensation of comfortable idleness , was beginning an article on the situation in the Balkans , when a voice floated out from the distant drawing-room , down the long corridor , through the writing-room into the lounge . It was not a little voice nor a big voice , it seemed to have no extraordinarily high notes and no low ones , it did not arrest attention by the agility of its use ; but it was as fresh and young as a bird 's and sweeter than honey in the comb .