four o'clock
The relief , after dragging days of uncertainty , came to Rudolph like a sea-breeze to a stoker . To escape and survive , -- the bare experience seemed to him at first an act of merit , the deed of a veteran . The interim had been packed with incongruity . There had been a dinner with Kempner , solemn , full of patriotism and philosophy ; a drunken dinner at Teppich 's ; another , and a worse , at Nesbit 's ; and the banquet of a native merchant , which began at four o'clock on melon-seeds , tea , black yearling eggs , and a hot towel , and ended at three in the morning on rice-brandy and betel served by unreal women with chalked faces and vermilion-spotted lips , simpering and melancholy . By day , there was work , or now and then a lesson with Dr. Earle 's teacher , a little aged Chinaman of intricate , refined , and plaintive courtesy . Under his guidance Rudolph learned rapidly , taking to study as a prodigal might take to drink . And with increasing knowledge came increasing tranquillity ; as when he found that the hideous cry , startling him at every dawn , was the signal not for massacre , but buffalo-milk .