About midnight
`` What change could come , '' asked Eugene of himself , `` any worse than had already appeared ? '' He was thinking of the drawings , though , he had seen in the book -- wondering if Angela would have to be assisted in some of the grim , mechanical ways indicated there . They illustrated to him the deadly possibilities of what might follow . About midnight the expected change , which Eugene in agonized sympathy was awaiting , arrived . Myrtle had not returned . She had been waiting to hear from Eugene . Although Angela had been groaning before , pulling herself tense at times , twisting in an aimless , unhappy fashion , now she seemed to spring up and fall as though she had fainted .