five in the afternoon
And one thing he avoided altogether , and that was how he had kissed Ilse Dumont . When he finished his account of his dreadful situation in the stateroom of Ilse Dumont , and how at the last second her unerring shots had shattered the bomb clock , cut the guy-rope , and smashed the water-jug which deluged the burning fuses , he added with a very genuine laugh : `` If only some photographer had taken a few hundred feet of film for me I could retire on an income in a year and never do another stroke of honest work ! '' The Princess smiled , mechanically , but Rue Carew dropped her white face on the Princess Naïa 's shoulder as though suddenly fatigued . The Princess Mistchenka and Rue Carew had retired to their respective rooms for that hour between four and five in the afternoon , which the average woman devotes to cat-naps or to that aimless feminine fussing which must ever remain a mystery to man . The afternoon had turned very warm ; Neeland , in his room , lay on the lounge in his undershirt and trousers , having arrived so far toward bathing and changing his attire . No breeze stirred the lattice blinds hanging over both open windows ; the semi-dusk of the room was pierced here and there by slender shafts of sunlight which lay almost white across the carpet and striped the opposite wall ; the rue Soleil d'Or was very silent in the July afternoon . And Neeland lay there thinking about all that had happened to him and trying to bring it home to himself and make it seem plausible and real ; and could not .