midnight
I had already drunk five glasses of drugged vodka , and , propping my heavy head on my fist , thought of my overpowering boredom from which there was no escape , while my wife sat beside me and did not take her eyes off me . She looked at me as no one can look but a woman who has nothing in this world but a handsome husband . She loved me madly , slavishly , and not merely my good looks , or my soul , but my sins , my ill-humor and boredom , and even my cruelty when , in drunken fury , not knowing how to vent my ill-humor , I tormented her with reproaches . In spite of the boredom which was consuming me , we were preparing to see the New Year in with exceptional festiveness , and were awaiting midnight with some impatience . The fact is , we had in reserve two bottles of champagne , the real thing , with the label of Veuve Clicquot ; this treasure I had won the previous autumn in a bet with the station-master of D. when I was drinking with him at a christening . It sometimes happens during a lesson in mathematics , when the very air is still with boredom , a butterfly flutters into the class-room ; the boys toss their heads and begin watching its flight with interest , as though they saw before them not a butterfly but something new and strange ; in the same way ordinary champagne , chancing to come into our dreary station , roused us . We sat in silence looking alternately at the clock and at the bottles .