eleven o’clock
`` Good-bye old fellow ! '' The gesture and the tone were polite , irreproachable , but the voice trembled a little . The club in the Rue Royale , which was famous for its gambling parties , rarely saw one so desperate as the gaming of that night . It commenced at eleven o'clock and was still going on at five in the morning . Enormous sums were scattered over the green cloth , changing hands , moved now to one side , now to the other , heaped up , distributed , regained . Fortunes were engulfed in this monster play , at the end of which the Nabob , who had started it to forget his terrors in the hazards of chance , after singular alternations and runs of luck enough to turn the hair of a beginner white , retired with winnings amounting to five hundred thousand francs . On the boulevard the next day they said five millions , and everybody cried out on the scandal , especially the _ Messenger _ , three-quarters filled by an article against certain adventurers tolerated in the clubs , and who cause the ruin of the most honourable families .