midnight
He lifted a golden glass and drank a vague toast heartily . Others in the Club were frankly intoxicated and many a heated scene marked the progress of unceremonious and impromptu revels . Young officers , who carried their lives in their hands every hour , showed their contempt of life in many bottles . Old men , stern and gray at dawn , were so many babbling imbeciles at midnight . The waiters ran to and fro ceaselessly , their faces dripping with perspiration and their throats hoarse with shouting . The musicians fiddled as though the end of all things was at hand and must not surprise them at a broken bar . In Russia the scene was familiar enough , but to the stranger incomprehensible and revolting .