tance in his eyes being the new coat-of-arms. The baroness came
downstairs on her husband's arm, got in, and had some cushions put
behind her back; then came Jeanne. She laughed first at the strange pair
of horses, and her laughter increased when she saw Marius with his face
buried under his cockaded hat (which his nose alone prevented from
slipping down to his chin), and his hands lost in his ample sleeves, and
the skirts of his coat coming right down to his feet, which were encased
in enormous boots; but when she saw him obliged to throw his head right
back before he could see anything, and raise his knee at each step as
though he were going to take a river in his stride, and move like a
blind man when he had an order given him, she gave a shout of laughter.
The baron turned round, looked for a moment at the little fellow who
stood looking so confused in his big clothes, and then he too was
overcome with laughter, and, hardly able to speak, called out to his
wife:

"Lo-lo-look at Ma-Marius! Does-doesn't he look fun-funny?"

The baroness leaned out of the carriage-window, and, catching sight of
Marius, she was shaken by such a fit of laughter that the carriage moved
up and down on its springs as if it were jolting over some deep ruts.

"What on earth is there to laugh at like that?" said Julien, his face
pale with anger. "You must be perfect idiots, all of you."

Jeanne sat down on the steps, holding her sides and quite unable to
contain herself; the baron followed her example, and, inside the
carriage, convulsive sneezes and a sort of continual clucking intimated
that the baroness was suffocating with laughter. At last Marius' coat
began to shake; no doubt, he understood the cause of all this mirth, and
he giggled himself, beneath his big hat. Julien rushed towards him in a
rage; he gave him a box on the ear which knocked the boy's hat off and
sent it rolling onto the grass; then, turning to the baron, he said, in
a voice that trembled with anger:

"I think you ought to be the last one to laugh. Whose fault is it that
you are ruined? We should not be like this if you had not squandered
your fortune and thrown away your money right and left."

All the laughter stopped abruptly, but no one spoke. Jeanne, ready to
cry now, quietly took her place beside her mother. The baron, without a
word, sat down opposite, and Julien got up on the box, after lifting up
the crying boy whose cheek was beginning to swell. The long d