about four o’clock
From hour to hour Mere-Grand 's lofty silence and Guillaume 's rapt , energetic face seemed to tell him that some huge and terrifying scheme had come into being , and was growing and threatening the whole of Paris . One afternoon , just as Thomas was about to repair to the Grandidier works , some one came to Guillaume 's with the news that old Toussaint , the workman , had been stricken with a fresh attack of paralysis . Thomas thereupon decided that he would call upon the poor fellow on his way , for he held him in esteem and wished to ascertain if he could render him any help . Pierre expressed a desire to accompany his nephew , and they started off together about four o'clock . On entering the one room which the Toussaints occupied , the room where they ate and slept , the visitors found the mechanician seated on a low chair near the table . He looked half dead , as if struck by lightning . It was a case of hemiplegia , which had paralysed the whole of his right side , his right leg and right arm , and had also spread to his face in such wise that he could no longer speak .