eight o'clock
Taking a sledge , Sasha grew calmer , and felt a rush of joy within him again . The `` rights of youth '' of which kind-hearted Ivan Markovitch had spoken at the family council woke up and asserted themselves . Sasha pictured the drinking-party before him , and , among the bottles , the women , and his friends , the thought flashed through his mind : `` Now I see that I am a criminal ; yes , I am a criminal . '' THE KISS AT eight o'clock on the evening of the twentieth of May all the six batteries of the N -- Reserve Artillery Brigade halted for the night in the village of Myestetchki on their way to camp . When the general commotion was at its height , while some officers were busily occupied around the guns , while others , gathered together in the square near the church enclosure , were listening to the quartermasters , a man in civilian dress , riding a strange horse , came into sight round the church . The little dun-coloured horse with a good neck and a short tail came , moving not straight forward , but as it were sideways , with a sort of dance step , as though it were being lashed about the legs . When he reached the officers the man on the horse took off his hat and said : `` His Excellency Lieutenant-General von Rabbek invites the gentlemen to drink tea with him this minute ... '' The horse turned , danced , and retired sideways ; the messenger raised his hat once more , and in an instant disappeared with his strange horse behind the church .