nine o’clock in the morning
Thus flowed on the peaceful life of the man , who , with a salary of four hundred rubles , understood how to be content with his lot ; and thus it would have continued to flow on , perhaps , to extreme old age , were it not that there are various ills strewn along the path of life for titular councillors as well as for private , actual , court , and every other species of councillor , even for those who never give any advice or take any themselves . There exists in St. Petersburg a powerful foe of all who receive a salary of four hundred rubles a year , or thereabouts . This foe is no other than the Northern cold , although it is said to be very healthy . At nine o'clock in the morning , at the very hour when the streets are filled with men bound for the various official departments , it begins to bestow such powerful and piercing nips on all noses impartially that the poor officials really do not know what to do with them . At an hour when the foreheads of even those who occupy exalted positions ache with the cold , and tears start to their eyes , the poor titular councillors are sometimes quite unprotected . Their only salvation lies in traversing as quickly as possible , in their thin little cloaks , five or six streets , and then warming their feet in the porter 's room , and so thawing all their talents and qualifications for official service , which had become frozen on the way . Akakiy Akakievitch had felt for some time that his back and shoulders suffered with peculiar poignancy , in spite of the fact that he tried to traverse the distance with all possible speed .