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I had, sort of, the same idea as Ted. Try: "You have posed a most interesting question, he said thoughtfully." With no other context, I don't see how this usage could be interpreted as "considerately".
I think the young lady should have taken your sentence in its context, before declaring your usage wrong. If the prelude had led one to think that the character's companion had, say, wanted to be alone, then "Thoughtfully, he walked back to his room" might be taken to mean that he was being considerate--though I don't like that. I don't see how she could have interpreted it as anything but meaning thinking deeply; one would presume that the companion has just given him something to think about.
Methinks your critic could benefit from some more experience. Perhaps she has only seen hubbub used in a funny story, and has thus assumed it is always used so.
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Carpal Tunnel
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With regard to "hubbub", there was an article in the New England Historical Genealogical Record
many years ago that seemed believable. It stated that not many years after the foundation of
Boston, the Massachusetts Indians had a gambling game in which animal "knuckle" bones were
used like dice. As is almost universal in such gambling, loud cries were uttered in hope of influencing
the result of the throw. "Hub! Hub!" was said to be the Indian exhortation employed. New Englanders brought it to England as a word describing mass babbling at parties.
It seems to me that its antiquity as onomatopoiea makes it quite acceptable.
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Pooh-Bah
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Have you tried her reaction to brouhaha?
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How good of you, Bingley, to so very thoughtfully instruct this young woman on the semantic diversity of thoughtful/ly. I don't know what all her hub-bub was about. Perhaps, as Pfranz points out, she needs more exposure to the language. While thoughtful as "consideration" is now the prevalent usage, the 'deeply in thought' or 'deeply reflective' connotation is not at all uncommon. And a bit presumptuous of her to argue against it, I must say...hasn't much of a propensity for exploration and gaining knowledge, has she? Why not offer her this idiom, Bingley...a phrase which seems to combine both: thoughtful consideration (i.e. after giving much thoughtful consideration to the matter; after a lot of thoughful consideration). That oughtta knock her off-balance and hopefully send her scurrying to the phrase-finder sites and dictionaries!  I have no problem with hub-bub, either....except that I usually spell it with a hyphen. (don't start, guys...and you all know who you are, the usual suspects)  But I see, that according to the dictionary, there is no hyphen....still, those two Bs sandwiched together kind of bother me...hubbub, hub-bub.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Actually, I have no objection to these usages. Hopefully, you will post a link to these comments so your "young woman" can see the error of her ways. --- >those two Bs sandwiched together kind of bother me...hubbub you're bothered by the hubbub, bub? is that what's bothering you bubby?!
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old hand
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old hand
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Well, I is 35 (and-a-half), and I agrees with Dubdub, 'way up near the beginning of this thread....I've heard of and understand both nuances/definitions/meanings of "thoughtfully" and I got no problem with "hubbub" (not even with the two bees sandwiched together in the middle there!).
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Carpal Tunnel
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you're bothered by the hubbub, bub? is that what's bothering you bubby?!Cool, tsuwm!...you Old Foolosopher, you!...you must be in bubbly spirits, today!  And don't forget that old Beach Boys' tune: "Bub, Bub, Bub, Bub, Bubra Ann..." sorry...
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member
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Is there anything to be gained by looking at the antonym?
If we take a thoughtless action ("That was very thoughtless of you"), is there any generational confusion over the inference, or is it again simply a matter of context?
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Well now, JH, you've brought up an interesting point. "Inconsiderate" is, I think, further from "thoughtless", than "considerate" is from "thoughtful". (Don't even mention that asymptote thing!) Thoughtless, to me, implies exactly that: lack of thought. Whereas, inconsiderate would or could mean that you may have been aware that what you were about to do wasn't very nice, but you went ahead and did it anyway. I'd be thoughtless if I took a parking space without looking to see if perhaps someone was waiting for it out of my immediate line of vision. I'd be inconsiderate if I saw someone coming from a distance and sped up to beat them to it. (And then there was the time when I was at a red light downtown, and to my delight saw an empty parking meter across the intersection. Then I saw someone pull up in front of it and hit their brakes. As my light turned green, their backup lights went on. I tore across the road and dove my car headfirst into the spot! What can I say, I was late for court! [shamefaced shrug])
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Carpal Tunnel
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I was late for court!For a reckless driving ticket, no doubt! 
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