And all the while the cat sat and stared at her, and seemed to grow positively bigger with staring so much, though when the Queen held out a piece of the goose to it, it merely sniffed contemptuously so that the Queen felt quite humiliated.
"Your cat doesn't seem to be very sociable," she said to the old woman.
And the old woman answered, "Why should he be?" and took up a large twig broom to sweep the hearth with.
That done, she leant upon it and regarded the Queen malevolently.
"Aren't you ever going to finish?" she said.
The Queen answered, "Well, I was rather hungry, you see; but I've finished now. There's no great hurry, is there?"
"I want my dinner," the old woman said, with such an emphasis on the "my" that the Queen was quite amused.
"Why, the goose is there; at least, there's some of it left."
"But I don't like goose," the old woman said. Her manner was growing more and more peculiar.
"Any one would think you were going to eat me," the Queen said; and the cat licked its jaws.