nearly midnight
`` What else ? '' `` A pocket-book -- with gilt letters on the back : C. B. distinctly marked . That was also found on the stairs , as if it had dropped from the pocket of some man as he went down . And it is proved -- indeed , your father tells me so -- that he went to that house last night and did not leave it until nearly midnight . '' `` But why was he there ? '' `` He went to see the man and woman who lived in the top room of that lodging-house . I think you know the woman .