midnight
I know that the white moth fluttered about my head , and that raising my hand , I caught it in my palm , which closed over it with violence . Then the cry from little Benjamin came again , and opening my palm , I watched the white moth fall dead , with crushed wings , to the floor . When I forget all else in my life , I shall still see Sally sitting motionless , like a painted figure , in the faint , reddish glow of the night-lamp , while above her , and above the little waxen face on her knee , the shadow , of the palm-leaf fan , waved by Aunt Euphronasia , flitted to and fro like the wing of a bat . At midnight the doctor came , and when he left , I followed him to the front steps . `` I 'll come again at dawn , '' he said , `` and in the meantime look out for your wife . She 's been strained to the point of breaking . '' `` You think , then , that the child is -- is hopeless ? ''