eight o'clock
`` Pardon me , '' said Staff ; `` I 'll have a word with the office . '' He hurried away , leaving Mrs. Ilkington still volubly dilating on that indignity that had been put upon her : Alison listening with an air of infinite detachment . His enquiry was fruitless enough . The day-clerk , he was informed by that personage , had not come on duty until eight o'clock ; he knew nothing of the affair beyond what he had been told by the night-clerk -- that Miss Searle had called for her bill and paid it at five o'clock ; had given instructions to have her luggage removed from her room and delivered on presentation of her written order ; and had then left the hotel in company with a gentleman who registered as `` I. Arbuthnot '' at one o'clock in the morning , paying for his room in advance . Staff , consumed with curiosity about this gentleman , was so persistent in his enquiry that he finally unearthed the bellboy who had shown that guest to his room and who furnished what seemed to be a tolerably accurate sketch of him . The man described was -- Iff . Discouraged and apprehensive , Staff returned to the lounge and made his report -- one received by Alison with frigid disapproval , by Mrs. Ilkington with every symptom of cordial animation ; from which it became immediately apparent that Alison had told the elder woman everything she should not have told her . ''