five o'clock
The night before , he had been dragged by his charge to three dances at open-all-night restaurants , where professionals entertained the audience . The Maharajah had insisted on learning to dance , his instructress being an attractive Russian girl ; then , as the fun grew furious , he had forgotten his eastern dignity , and pirouetted for a wager , with a valuable jar containing a palm . This jar he had promptly broken , and had not been conciliatory to the proprietor . At five o'clock he had driven his own car -- bought at Marseilles -- to Nice , full to overflowing with his late partners . There had been a slight accident , and to console the girls for their fright the Maharajah had divided all his ready money among them . Since then he had had one fight with a German , whom he had jostled , and who had called him a black man . Major Norwood had been obliged to use the most nerve-racking exertions to keep his princeling out of a French prison .