five o'clock
At the end of the fortnight he took his place in the office . At first he was of very little use there ; for although he could talk and understand Russian as spoken , he had entirely forgotten the written characters , and it took him some little time before he could either read the business correspondence or make entries in the office books . Ivan Petrovytch did his best to assist him , and in the course of a month he began to master the mysteries of Russian writing . At five o'clock the office closed . Godfrey very frequently dined out , but if he had no engagement he took his meal with the merchant and his wife , and then sallied out and went either alone or with some of his acquaintances to a Russian theatre . With December , winter set in in earnest . The waters were frozen , and skating began .