She s in prison, the Queen said to the executioner: fetch her here.
And the executioner went off like an arrow.
The Cat s head began fading away the moment he was gone, and, by the
time he had come back with the Duchess, it had entirely disappeared; so
the King and the executioner ran wildly up and down looking for it,
while the rest of the party went back to the game.
CHAPTER IX.
The Mock Turtle s Story
You can t think how glad I am to see you again, you dear old thing!
said the Duchess, as she tucked her arm affectionately into Alice s,
and they walked off together.
Alice was very glad to find her in such a pleasant temper, and thought
to herself that perhaps it was only the pepper that had made her so
savage when they met in the kitchen.
When _I m_ a Duchess, she said to herself, (not in a very hopeful
tone though), I won t have any pepper in my kitchen _at all_. Soup
does very well without Maybe it s always pepper that makes people
hot-tempered, she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new
kind of rule, and vinegar that makes them sour and camomile that makes
them bitter and and barley-sugar and such things that make children
sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew _that_: then they wouldn t be
so stingy about it, you know
She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little
startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. You re thinking
about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can t
tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in
a bit.
Perhaps it hasn t one, Alice ventured to remark.
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