"That's sweet of you; now I shan't. I think if Sister Ellen came and asked me if the seven-tailed bandages had arrived, I should gibber in her face. She hasn't got a face, by the way, she has only two profiles. How funnily people are made! She's got two profiles and no face, and David has got a duck of a face and no profile: just the end of his nose comes out of a round, plump cheek. I wish I was eleven years old again. I wish I was a cat with nine lives, or is it tails? Seven lives, isn't it? Or is seven rather too many? How many lives do you want, Jack? Choose!"
Jack threw down his beautiful tower of stones.
"Oh, this one will do," he said. "This and the next. If I must choose, I choose whatever happens. I might spoil everything by choosing."
"But if you could have your life over again, wouldn't you choose that many things should be different?" she asked.
"I don't think so. If things had been different, they wouldn't be as they are at this moment. You and me."
Dodo laid her hand on his.
"My dear, are you content?" she asked.
His eyes answered her.