midnight
`` Besides , I have n't the time to hang about the law courts , damn them ! '' He had a nap after the pie and then had dinner , then had another nap , then went to the evening service at the church of which he was a warden ; after the service he went back to the name-day party and played preference till midnight . Everything seemed satisfactory . But when Avdeyev hurried home after midnight the cook , who opened the door to him , looked pale , and was trembling so violently that she could not utter a word . His wife , Elizaveta Trofimovna , a flabby , overfed woman , with her grey hair hanging loose , was sitting on the sofa in the drawing-room quivering all over , and vacantly rolling her eyes as though she were drunk . Her elder son , Vassily , a high-school boy , pale too , and extremely agitated , was fussing round her with a glass of water . `` What 's the matter ? ''