seven o'clock
Wearisome , insignificant people , pots of sour cream , jugs of milk , cockroaches , stupid women ... . There is nothing more terrible , mortifying , and distressing than vulgarity . I must escape from here , I must escape today , or I shall go out of my mind ! '' NOT WANTED BETWEEN six and seven o'clock on a July evening , a crowd of summer visitors -- mostly fathers of families -- burdened with parcels , portfolios , and ladies ' hat-boxes , was trailing along from the little station of Helkovo , in the direction of the summer villas . They all looked exhausted , hungry , and ill-humoured , as though the sun were not shining and the grass were not green for them . Trudging along among the others was Pavel Matveyitch Zaikin , a member of the Circuit Court , a tall , stooping man , in a cheap cotton dust-coat and with a cockade on his faded cap . He was perspiring , red in the face , and gloomy ... `` Do you come out to your holiday home every day ? ''