eight o'clock in the morning
THE DUEL EXCELLENT PEOPLE MIRE NEIGHBOURS AT HOME EXPENSIVE LESSONS THE PRINCESS THE CHEMIST 'S WIFE THE DUEL It was eight o'clock in the morning -- the time when the officers , the local officials , and the visitors usually took their morning dip in the sea after the hot , stifling night , and then went into the pavilion to drink tea or coffee . Ivan Andreitch Laevsky , a thin , fair young man of twenty-eight , wearing the cap of a clerk in the Ministry of Finance and with slippers on his feet , coming down to bathe , found a number of acquaintances on the beach , and among them his friend Samoylenko , the army doctor . With his big cropped head , short neck , his red face , his big nose , his shaggy black eyebrows and grey whiskers , his stout puffy figure and his hoarse military bass , this Samoylenko made on every newcomer the unpleasant impression of a gruff bully ; but two or three days after making his acquaintance , one began to think his face extraordinarily good-natured , kind , and even handsome . In spite of his clumsiness and rough manner , he was a peaceable man , of infinite kindliness and goodness of heart , always ready to be of use .