"
Everybody began to laugh, but she failed to understand the reason. And it
was in the same tranquil way as before that she thanked Denis when he
brought her the boa: "I am obliged to you, Blaise; you are very amiable."
Thereupon came an explosion; the others almost choked with laughter, so
droll did her quiet assurance seem to them. What was the matter, then?
Why did they all laugh at her in that fashion? She ended by suspecting
that she had made a mistake, and looked more attentively at the twins.
"Ah, yes, it isn't Blaise, but Denis! But it can't be helped. I am always
mistaking them since they have worn their beards trimmed in the same
fashion."
Thereupon Marianne, in her obliging way, in order to take any sting away
from the laughter, repeated the well-known family story of how she
herself, when the twins were children and slept together, had been wont
to awake them in order to identify them by the different color of their
eyes. The others, Beauchene and Valentine, then intervened and recalled
circumstances under which they also had mistaken the twins one for the
other, so perfect was their resemblance on certain occasions, in certain
lights.
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