four o’clock in the
morning
Solomin lost his temper once in real earnest on hearing of some legal injustice about the suppression of a workman 's association . He banged his powerful fist on the table so that everything on it trembled , including a forty-pound weight , which happened to be lying near the ink pot . When Markelov and Nejdanov began discussing ways and means of executing their plans , Solomin listened with respectful curiosity , but did not pronounce a single word . Their talk lasted until four o'clock in the morning , when they had touched upon almost everything under the sun . Markelov again spoke mysteriously of Kisliakov 's untiring journeys and his letters , which were becoming more interesting than ever . He promised to show them to Nejdanov , saying that he would probably have to take them away with him , as they were rather lengthy and written in an illegible handwriting . He assured him that there was a great deal of learning in them and even poetry , not of the frivolous kind , but poetry with a socialistic tendency !