eleven o'clock
`` Of course , I shall tell Helena -- but why ? -- '' His voice spoke bewilderment and pain . `` Tell her _ yourself _ -- that 's all , '' said Geoffrey , resolutely -- `` and , if you can , before she hears it from anybody else . '' Buntingford and French reached home between ten and eleven o'clock . When they entered the house , they heard sounds of music from the drawing-room . Peter Dale was playing fragments from the latest musical comedy , with a whistled accompaniment on the drawing-room piano . There seemed to be nothing else audible in the house , in spite of the large party it contained .