You are making a disturbance, and I shall be reprimanded.
I ask you, is this a decent time for rousing honest patriots out of their morning sleep ?" He shook his arm free from Armand's grasp and once more began to descend.
Armand stood on the landing like a man who has been stunned by a blow on the head.

His limbs were paralysed.

He could not for the moment have moved or spoken if his life had depended on a sign or on a word.

His brain was reeling, and he had to steady himself with his hand against the wall or he would have fallen headlong on the floor.

He had lived in a whirl of excitement for the past twenty-four hours; his nerves during that time had been kept at straining point.