It lies at all times does Nevsky Avenue, but most of all when night hovers over it in a thick mass, picking out the white from the dun-colored houses, and all the town thunders and blazes with lights, and the thousands of carriages come driving from the bridges, the ourtriders shouting and jogging up and down on their horses, and when the devil himself lights all the street lamps to show everything in anything but its true colors.

Source: Nevsky Avenue (last paragraph)