eleven o'clock
Besides , I 'm in a hurry , stifling for fresh air . Just give me twenty minutes ... '' She offered him a hand , and he bowed his lips to it ; then quietly let himself out into the alleyway . Late that night , Staff drifted into the smoking-room , which he found rather sparsely patronised . This fact surprised him no less than its explanation : it was after eleven o'clock . He had hardly realised the flight of time , so absorbed had he been all evening in argument with Alison Landis . There remained in the smoking-room , at this late hour , but half a dozen detached men , smoking and talking over their nightcaps , and one table of bridge players -- in whose number , of course , there was Mr. Iff . Nodding abstractedly to the little man , Staff found a quiet corner and sat him down with a sigh and a shake of his head that illustrated vividly his frame of mind .