midday
He walked along thinking of nothing but Lyubka , of the peasants with whom he had passed the night ; he remembered how , after Lyubka struck him the second time , she had bent down to the floor for the quilt , and how her loose hair had fallen on the floor . His mind was in a maze , and he wondered why there were in the world doctors , hospital assistants , merchants , clerks , and peasants instead of simple free men ? There are , to be sure , free birds , free beasts , a free Merik , and they are not afraid of anyone , and do n't need anyone ! And whose idea was it , who had decreed that one must get up in the morning , dine at midday , go to bed in the evening ; that a doctor takes precedence of a hospital assistant ; that one must live in rooms and love only one 's wife ? And why not the contrary -- dine at night and sleep in the day ? Ah , to jump on a horse without enquiring whose it is , to ride races with the wind like a devil , over fields and forests and ravines , to make love to girls , to mock at everyone ... . Yergunov thrust the poker into the snow , pressed his forehead to the cold white trunk of a birch-tree , and sank into thought ; and his grey , monotonous life , his wages , his subordinate position , the dispensary , the everlasting to-do with the bottles and blisters , struck him as contemptible , sickening .