twelve o'clock
I insist on your operating . Not another night shall pass -- '' `` As you will , '' said Thénard . `` And now , '' said Berselius , `` make your preparations , and send me my secretary . '' * * * * * At twelve o'clock that night , Maxine was seated in the library , with a book which she had been vainly trying to read face downward on the floor beside her . Thénard , his assistant surgeon , and two nurses , had arrived shortly after ten . Operating table , instruments , everything necessary had been brought , set up , and fixed by Thénard 's own man . Adams had no part in the proceedings except as a looker-on .