three o'clock
There were lights burning in the windows of the house at Maryino ; Prokofitch in a black frockcoat and white gloves , with a special solemnity , laid the table for seven . A week before in the small parish church two weddings had taken place quietly , and almost without witnesses -- Arkady and Katya 's , and Nikolai Petrovitch and Fenitchka 's ; and on this day Nikolai Petrovitch was giving a farewell dinner to his brother , who was going away to Moscow on business . Anna Sergyevna had gone there also directly after the ceremony was over , after making very handsome presents to the young people . Precisely at three o'clock they all gathered about the table . Mitya was placed there too ; with him appeared a nurse in a cap of glazed brocade . Pavel Petrovitch took his seat between Katya and Fenitchka ; the ` husbands ' took their places beside their wives . Our friends had changed of late ; they all seemed to have grown stronger and better looking ; only Pavel Petrovitch was thinner , which gave even more of an elegant and ` grand seigneur ' air to his expressive features ... .