six o'clock
On reaching home I promptly wrote to Simonov . To this hour I am lost in admiration when I recall the truly gentlemanly , good-humoured , candid tone of my letter . With tact and good-breeding , and , above all , entirely without superfluous words , I blamed myself for all that had happened . I defended myself , `` if I really may be allowed to defend myself , '' by alleging that being utterly unaccustomed to wine , I had been intoxicated with the first glass , which I said , I had drunk before they arrived , while I was waiting for them at the Hotel de Paris between five and six o'clock . I begged Simonov 's pardon especially ; I asked him to convey my explanations to all the others , especially to Zverkov , whom `` I seemed to remember as though in a dream '' I had insulted . I added that I would have called upon all of them myself , but my head ached , and besides I had not the face to . I was particularly pleased with a certain lightness , almost carelessness -LRB- strictly within the bounds of politeness , however -RRB- , which was apparent in my style , and better than any possible arguments , gave them at once to understand that I took rather an independent view of `` all that unpleasantness last night '' ; that I was by no means so utterly crushed as you , my friends , probably imagine ; but on the contrary , looked upon it as a gentleman serenely respecting himself should look upon it .