midnight
He touched the patient 's wrist , then put a stethoscope to his chest . Actually , he was thinking of a different chest and different legs at the time -- the ones belonging to a copper-haired girl named Rhoda Kane . Rhoda 's legs were far more alluring . Her chest had added equipment that was a haven of rest under trying circumstances , and Corson yearned for midnight when he would quit this charnel house and climb into Rhoda 's convertible and -- perhaps later -- do a little chest analysis without benefit of stethoscope . Now he sighed , commandeered a passing orderly , and went to work . Twenty minutes later he saw his patient deposited in a ten-bed ward . He transcribed his data onto the clipboard at the foot of the bed , and looked guiltily into the hall to see how things were going .