six o’clock
As soon as it is dark they wo n't go by the hut one by one , but only in a flock together . And the witnesses too ... '' Dr. Startchenko , a middle-aged man in spectacles with a dark beard , and the examining magistrate Lyzhin , a fair man , still young , who had only taken his degree two years before and looked more like a student than an official , sat in silence , musing . They were vexed that they were late . Now they had to wait till morning , and to stay here for the night , though it was not yet six o'clock ; and they had before them a long evening , a dark night , boredom , uncomfortable beds , beetles , and cold in the morning ; and listening to the blizzard that howled in the chimney and in the loft , they both thought how unlike all this was the life which they would have chosen for themselves and of which they had once dreamed , and how far away they both were from their contemporaries , who were at that moment walking about the lighted streets in town without noticing the weather , or were getting ready for the theatre , or sitting in their studies over a book . Oh , how much they would have given now only to stroll along the Nevsky Prospect , or along Petrovka in Moscow , to listen to decent singing , to sit for an hour or so in a restaurant ! `` Oo-oo-oo-oo ! '' sang the storm in the loft , and something outside slammed viciously , probably the signboard on the hut .