two o'clock
Ah , how truly ! '' For the sake of sociability and from sympathy for the hard plight of newcomers without families , who , as there was not an hotel in the town , had nowhere to dine , Dr. Samoylenko kept a sort of table d'hôte . At this time there were only two men who habitually dined with him : a young zoologist called Von Koren , who had come for the summer to the Black Sea to study the embryology of the medusa , and a deacon called Pobyedov , who had only just left the seminary and been sent to the town to take the duty of the old deacon who had gone away for a cure . Each of them paid twelve roubles a month for their dinner and supper , and Samoylenko made them promise to turn up at two o'clock punctually . Von Koren was usually the first to appear . He sat down in the drawing-room in silence , and taking an album from the table , began attentively scrutinising the faded photographs of unknown men in full trousers and top-hats , and ladies in crinolines and caps . Samoylenko only remembered a few of them by name , and of those whom he had forgotten he said with a sigh : `` A very fine fellow , remarkably intelligent ! ''