midnight
I say to my surprise , for , although he had always yielded his person freely to my experiments , he had never before given me any tokens of sympathy with what I did . His disease was of that character which would admit of exact calculation in respect to the epoch of its termination in death ; and it was finally arranged between us that he would send for me about twenty-four hours before the period announced by his physicians as that of his decease . It is now rather more than seven months since I received , from M. Valdemar himself , the subjoined note : My DEAR P -- , You may as well come now . D -- and F -- are agreed that I can not hold out beyond to-morrow midnight ; and I think they have hit the time very nearly . I received this note within half an hour after it was written , and in fifteen minutes more I was in the dying man 's chamber . I had not seen him for ten days , and was appalled by the fearful alteration which the brief interval had wrought in him . His face wore a leaden hue ; the eyes were utterly lustreless ; and the emaciation was so extreme that the skin had been broken through by the cheek-bones .