midnight
After this friendly talk , which was not over till midnight , Laptev took to coming to see Yartsev almost every day . He felt drawn to him . As a rule he came towards evening , lay down on the sofa , and waited patiently for Yartsev to come in , without feeling in the least bored . When Yartsev came back from his work , he had dinner , and sat down to work ; but Laptev would ask him a question , a conversation would spring up , and there was no more thought of work and at midnight the friends parted very well pleased with one another . But this did not last long . Arriving one day at Yartsev 's , Laptev found no one there but Polina , who was sitting at the piano practising her exercises . She looked at him with a cold , almost hostile expression , and asked without shaking hands : `` Tell me , please : how much longer is this going on ? ''