about noon
So the two nurses continued to sit until darkness at the windows weakened into gray , and the lamp was no more needed . Their patient was rambling again . Yet , into whatever scenes he went , there in some guise did the throb of his pain evidently follow him , and he lay hitching his great shoulder as if to rid it of the cumbrance . They waited for the doctor , not daring much more than to turn pillows and give what other ease they could ; and then , instead of the doctor , came a messenger , about noon , to say he was gone on a visit some thirty miles beyond , where Taylor had followed to bring him here as soon as might be . At this Molly consented to rest and to watch , turn about ; and once she was over in her friend 's house lying down , they tried to keep her there . But the revolutionist could not be put down , and when , as a last pretext , Mrs. Taylor urged the proprieties and conventions , the pale girl from Vermont laughed sweetly in her face and returned to sit by the sick man . With the approach of the second night his fever seemed to rise and master him more completely than they had yet seen it , and presently it so raged that the women called in stronger arms to hold him down .