"Oh, can't you see? Supposing he comes and does look at me; and then goes away without—without caring!—That's what you are asking me to put up with. For me to know, and for him to know, and for him to know that I know! How would you like it yourself?"
"I tell her she is very ridiculous," said the Queen. "A Princess can't marry a mushroom. Does she want to fall in love with her eyes shut. Something has to be done beforehand, or we should never be anywhere——"
"I don't want to be anywhere," said the Princess.
"Outside a lunatic asylum," said her mother, completing the sentence.
"My dear child," put in the King, "don't you see that nothing is really settled—and will not be until you agree to it?"
"Then why did you ever tell him anything about it? Why couldn't we have just met? It's this picking of us out beforehand behind our backs, and then telling us of it; that's what I can't stand!"
"My dear, nobody is forcing you," repeated the King persuasively.
"Then I won't see him."
"I tell her she must," remarked the Queen in a tone of comfortable finality.
"Mamma, will you stop knitting!" cried Charlotte. "You treat me as if I were an insect!"