"I wonder you don't remember what Goldsmith says," continued Mole.
"What does he say, Mr. Mole?"
"Don't you remember that line about 'the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind.' I fear your mind must be very vacant, Mr. Harvey."
"He had you there, Uncle Dick," said young Jack.
"Pooh! But look at his legs."
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed young Jack in turn.
Mr. Mole's trousers, it will be recollected, had been cut away below the knees immediately after his railway accident, and now he stood in a pair of nicely-varnished boots, above which could be seen the various springs and hinges of his mechanical limbs.
The trouser legs were not longer in proportion than a small boy's knickerbockers.
By this time, however, a cab or two had turned up, and, the ladies having been fetched from the railway waiting-room, the whole party proceeded to one of the many good hotels Paris possesses.