midnight
There are some statements for which it is impossible to be prepared ; statements so strong and so startling that it is impossible to answer them except by action -- by a blow . And this of M. de Pavannes was one of these . If there had been any one present , I think I should have given him the lie and drawn upon him . But alone with him at midnight in the shadow near the bottom of the Rue des Fosses , with no witnesses , with every reason to feel friendly towards him , what was I to do ? As a fact , I did nothing . I stood , silent and stupefied , waiting to hear more . He did not keep me long .