eleven o'clock at night
That `` Hm '' floated off to some one who was listening for it . Perhaps it was an echo that came floating back . Perhaps it was n't . But any grown-up person who hesitates in an empty room of a country house at eleven o'clock at night and murmurs `` Hm '' into the open air is not in an ordinary state of mind . The normal thing is to put the lights out and go up more or less briskly to bed . Uncle Felix was no exception to this rule . His emotions , evidently , were not quite normal .