about one
o'clock
So Old Aunt thinks she 'd better clear out . '' The husband and wife went to bed early that night , but Mrs. Bunting found she could not sleep . She lay wide awake , hearing the hours , the half-hours , the quarters chime out from the belfry of the old church close by . And then , just as she was dozing off -- it must have been about one o'clock -- she heard the sound she had half unconsciously been expecting to hear , that of the lodger 's stealthy footsteps coming down the stairs just outside her room . He crept along the passage and let himself out very , very quietly . But though she tried to keep awake , Mrs. Bunting did not hear him come in again , for she soon fell into a heavy sleep . Oddly enough , she was the first to wake the next morning ; odder still , it was she , not Bunting , who jumped out of bed , and going out into the passage , picked up the newspaper which had just been pushed through the letter-box .