noon
White-necked and white-bosomed , all had great roving eyes , the gait of peacocks , and hair reaching to the waist . And as , with his hands clasping theirs , he glided hither and thither in the dance , or retired backwards towards a wall with a row of other young fellows , and then , with them , returned to meet the damsels -- all singing in chorus -LRB- and laughing as they sang it -RRB- , `` Boyars , show me my bridegroom ! '' and dusk was falling gently , and from the other side of the river there kept coming far , faint , plaintive echoes of the melody -- well , then our Selifan hardly knew whether he were standing upon his head or his heels . Later , when sleeping and when waking , both at noon and at twilight , he would seem still to be holding a pair of white hands , and moving in the dance . Chichikov 's horses also found nothing of which to disapprove . Yes , both the bay , the Assessor , and the skewbald accounted residence at Tientietnikov 's a most comfortable affair , and voted the oats excellent , and the arrangement of the stables beyond all cavil . True , on this occasion each horse had a stall to himself ; yet , by looking over the intervening partition , it was possible always to see one 's fellows , and , should a neighbour take it into his head to utter a neigh , to answer it at once .