midnight
On other occasions this had of course been very impressive , but this time Arkady Ivanovitch seemed particularly impatient , and insisted on seeing his betrothed at once , though he had been informed , to begin with , that she had already gone to bed . The girl of course appeared . Svidrigaïlov informed her at once that he was obliged by very important affairs to leave Petersburg for a time , and therefore brought her fifteen thousand roubles and begged her accept them as a present from him , as he had long been intending to make her this trifling present before their wedding . The logical connection of the present with his immediate departure and the absolute necessity of visiting them for that purpose in pouring rain at midnight was not made clear . But it all went off very well ; even the inevitable ejaculations of wonder and regret , the inevitable questions were extraordinarily few and restrained . On the other hand , the gratitude expressed was most glowing and was reinforced by tears from the most sensible of mothers . Svidrigaïlov got up , laughed , kissed his betrothed , patted her cheek , declared he would soon come back , and noticing in her eyes , together with childish curiosity , a sort of earnest dumb inquiry , reflected and kissed her again , though he felt sincere anger inwardly at the thought that his present would be immediately locked up in the keeping of the most sensible of mothers .