four
o'clock in the morning
Many such matters , however , were explained to him by an elderly gentleman who sat on his right , and who seemed to stay sober , no matter how much he drank . Incidentally he gravely advised Montague to meet one of the young host 's mistresses , who was a `` stunning '' girl , and was in the market . Toward morning the festivities changed to a series of wrestling-bouts ; the young men stripped off their clothing and tore the table to pieces , and piled it out of the way in a corner , smashing most of the crockery in the process . Between the matches , champagne would be opened by knocking off the heads of the bottles ; and this went on until four o'clock in the morning , when many of the guests were lying in heaps upon the floor . Montague rode home in a cab with the elderly gentleman who had sat next to him ; and on the way he asked if such affairs as this were common . And his companion , who was a `` steel man '' from the West , replied by telling him of some which he had witnessed at home . At Siegfried Harvey 's theatre-party Montague had seen a popular actress in a musical comedy , which was then the most successful play running in New York .