one o'clock at night
Initiating his son into his commercial secrets , the old man spoke as though he were engaged , not in trade , but in sorcery . It appeared that the profits of the business were increasing approximately ten per cent . per annum , and that the Laptevs ' fortune , reckoning only money and paper securities , amounted to six million roubles . When at one o'clock at night , after balancing the accounts , Laptev went out into the open air , he was still under the spell of those figures . It was a still , sultry , moonlight night . The white walls of the houses beyond the river , the heavy barred gates , the stillness and the black shadows , combined to give the impression of a fortress , and nothing was wanting to complete the picture but a sentinel with a gun . Laptev went into the garden and sat down on a seat near the fence , which divided them from the neighbour 's yard , where there was a garden , too .