Thirty-nine was a corner room, at the end of the passage, but late though it was--"One" struck gently downstairs--a line of light under the door showed that some one was still awake.
"How late you are, Hugh!" a woman, lying in bed, said in a peevish but solicitous voice.

Her husband was brushing his teeth, and for some moments did not answer.
"You should have gone to sleep," he replied.

"I was talking to Thornbury." "But you know that I never can sleep when I'm waiting for you," she said.
To that he made no answer, but only remarked, "Well then, we'll turn out the light." They were silent.
The faint but penetrating pulse of an electric bell could now be heard in the corridor.

Old Mrs.Paley, having woken hungry but without her spectacles, was summoning her maid to find the biscuit-box.

The maid having answered the bell, drearily respectful even at this hour though muffled in a mackintosh, the passage was left in silence.