Two in the afternoon
Towards daybreak Yama little by little grows quiet , and the bright morning finds it depopulated , spacious , plunged into sleep , with doors shut tightly , with shutters fixed on the windows . But toward evening the women awaken and get ready for the following night . And so without end , day after day , for months and years , they live a strange , incredible life in their public harems , outcast by society , accursed by the family , victims of the social temperament , cloacas for the excess of the city 's sensuality , the guardians of the honour of the family -- four hundred foolish , lazy , hysterical , barren women . Two in the afternoon . In the second-rate , two-rouble establishment of Anna Markovna everything is plunged in sleep . The large square parlor with mirrors in gilt frames , with a score of plush chairs placed decorously along the walls , with oleograph pictures of Makovsky 's Feast of the Russian Noblemen , and Bathing , with a crystal lustre in the middle , is also sleeping , and in the quiet and semi-darkness it seems unwontedly pensive , austere , strangely sad . Yesterday here , as on every evening , lights burned , the most rollicking of music rang out , blue tobacco smoke swirled , men and women careered in couples , shaking their hips and throwing their legs on high .