midnight
Day before yesterday I spent the whole day with a roaring in my head as though a lot of drums were beating behind it . At the same time this left knee was so swollen that I could not even walk from my room to the dining-room . I sent a message to Don Maximo , and he did not appear till it was dark . I assure you I passed a wretched day , and if it had not been for some tallow plasters which my daughter Marta put on my temples at midnight , I should certainly have died , for Don Maximo did not think it necessary even to have a lamp lighted to see me . '' `` What you point out still more confirms my assertion . You see how domestic remedies , administered without other judgment than that suggested by experience , by the results obtained in a long series of cases , sometimes operate on the organism in a more successful way than scientific medicine . Such a thing could not happen in our profession , señora , where all the chances that may occur are foreseen in advance by the laws , or by jurisprudence raised into the category of the law .