five o'clock in the morning
My God , nobody can understand ! ' `` But every one understood very well that she was four years older than her sister Masha , and still unmarried , and that she was crying , not from envy , but from the melancholy consciousness that her time was passing , and perhaps had passed . When they danced the quadrille , she was back in the drawing-room with a tear-stained and heavily powdered face , and I saw Captain Polyansky holding a plate of ice before her while she ate it with a spoon . `` It is past five o'clock in the morning . I took up my diary to describe my complete and perfect happiness , and thought I would write a good six pages , and read it tomorrow to Masha ; but , strange to say , everything is muddled in my head and as misty as a dream , and I can remember vividly nothing but that episode with Varya , and I want to write , ` Poor Varya ! ' I could go on sitting here and writing ` Poor Varya ! ' By the way , the trees have begun rustling ; it will rain .