Chapter XI
A Party for Alice
In which Alice is the guest of honour
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Despite the Rabbit’s doubts, both he and Alice arrived at the party in good time.
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‘You know,’ said the Rabbit, as they paused to catch their breath outside the banquet hall, ‘I have been thinking about what you said earlier today. About all this being a dream.’
‘Really?’ said Alice, as she smoothed out her new dress.
‘Yes,’ said the Rabbit, reaching for his box of carrots. ‘You do remember what you said about this all being a dream? Possibly your own dream, or maybe even someone else’s? Well, I have thought of something even more disturbing than all that!’
‘What is it?’ asked Alice, with only mild concern in her voice.
‘Well,’ said the Rabbit, giving one of the carrots a good rub on his sleeve and then biting off its head, ‘what if this isn’t a dream at all? What if all this is actually real? What if it really does hurt when someone falls over or stubs their toe? What if the Queen is real, and we are real, and everything around us is real? Wouldn’t that be truly disturbing?’
‘Why would that be any more concerning?’ asked Alice.
‘Don’t you see?’ said the Rabbit. ‘If all this is real then, when something bad happens, it really will happen. If somebody loses their head, then it isn’t just a story. They really will lose their head, and it stays that way!’
‘Well … yes,’ said Alice, somewhat taken aback by the Rabbit’s comments. ‘I suppose that would be right.’
‘Quite horrible,’ said the Rabbit with a shudder, and he hurried inside to look for the Queen.
‘How strange!’ thought Alice. ‘Here I am concerned that I might be dreaming about all this, and there is the Rabbit worried sick that it might actually be real,’ and she gave a little laugh at the idea.
Within a few minutes, the Rabbit came back out and he motioned to Alice.
‘The Queen is here,’ he said, ‘and we should go in now.’
Alice hesitated for a moment.
‘Whatever is the matter?’ asked the Rabbit. ‘We have to go in.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Alice, somewhat reluctantly. ‘It is funny, because I was so looking forward to dining with the King and Queen but, now that I am here, I am not at all sure that I really want to go through with it.’
‘Nonsense,’ said the Rabbit. ‘You have to go in. It is your fête, you know.’
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‘That is what worries me,’ said Alice.
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‘You go ahead,’ said the Rabbit, ‘and I will follow behind, to make sure that you don’t back out,’ and he gave her a gentle push towards the main doors.
‘Ah, well,’ thought Alice, ‘I must do what I must do,’ and she screwed up her courage and entered the room.
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The first thing that Alice noticed, as she walked through the doorway, was the kitten.
The young cat was sitting high up on the furniture, watching the proceedings from her carefully chosen vantage ...
