one o’clock in the afternoon
AT one o'clock in the afternoon of a spring day in the year 1868 , a young man of twenty-seven , carelessly and shabbily dressed , was toiling up the back staircase of a five-storied house on Officers Street in St. Petersburg . Noisily shuffling his down-trodden goloshes and slowly swinging his heavy , clumsy figure , the man at last reached the very top flight and stopped before a half-open door hanging off its hinges . He did not ring the bell , but gave a loud sigh and walked straight into a small , dark passage . `` Is Nejdanov at home ? ''