midnight
But the Edinburgh doctor who came brought relief for the pain , and , talking with Dr. Angus , the Carlossie doctor , mentioned , among other technicalities , the name of a drug -- `` digitalis . '' That afternoon Marcella went back in the doctor 's trap to get the new medicine , and it gave relief . Whenever , after that , the choking came back , Andrew would cry out for digitalis , which seemed to him the elixir of life . Sometimes he would pray for courage ; sometimes , cracking suddenly , he would pray for digitalis and send Marcella often at midnight with a pleading note to the doctor to give him the drug and a little soothing for his heart that was running away with him . Now that he could not move about he still thought of the souls of the people in the village , and sent a message to them , pleading with them to come and see him . And they , remembering him as the laird , with a sort of feudal obedience , came and stood about his bed , to be stormed at or prayed with according to Andrew 's mood . But always after one of these missionary efforts he would suffer agonies of suffocation when he had forgotten , for a while , that his heart was a bubble of glass .