about midnight
One evening the doctor was called out to a case and drove off in his gig with the man-servant , saying that he would not be back till next day . In her master 's absence , a little girl who served as maid-of-all-work ran out to keep company with her sweetheart . These accidents destiny turned to account with diabolical malignity . At about midnight , Madame d'Imbleval was seized with the first pains . The nurse , Mlle. Boussignol , had had some training as a midwife and did not lose her head . But , an hour later , Madame Vaurois ' turn came ; and the tragedy , or I might rather say the tragi-comedy , was enacted amid the screams and moans of the two patients and the bewildered agitation of the nurse running from one to the other , bewailing her fate , opening the window to call out for the doctor or falling on her knees to implore the aid of Providence ... . Madame Vaurois was the first to bring a son into the world .