“I always said it would,” said the Cat.
ALICE AND THE LIBERAL PARTY
Quite a number of them were going past, and the noise was considerable, but they were marching in sixes and sevens and didn’t seem to be guided by any fixed word of command, so that the effect was not so imposing as it might have been. Some of them, Alice noticed, had the letters “I.L.” embroidered on their tunics and headpieces and other conspicuous places (“I wonder,” she thought, “if it’s marked on their underclothing as well”); others simply had a big “L,” and others again were branded with a little “e.” They got dreadfully in each other’s way, and were always falling over one another in little heaps, while many of the mounted ones did not seem at all sure of their seats. “They won’t go very far if they don’t fall into better order,” thought Alice, and she was glad to find herself the next minute in a spacious hall with a large marble staircase at one end of it. The White King was sitting on one of the steps, looking rather anxious and just a little uncomfortable under his heavy crown, which needed a good deal of balancing to keep it in its place.
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THE PRIMROSE MESSENGER. “Out of reach.” |
THE UNKHAKI MESSENGER. “Out of touch.” |
“Did you happen to meet any fighting men?” he asked Alice.
“A great many—two or three hundred, I should think.”
“Not quite two hundred, all told,” said the King, referring to his note-book.
“Told what?” asked Alice.
“Well, they haven’t been told anything, exactly—yet. The fact is,” the King went on nervously, “we’re rather in want of a messenger just now. I don’t know how it is, there are two or three of them about, but lately they have always been either out of reach or else out of touch. You don’t happen to have passed any one coming from the direction of Berkeley Square?” he asked eagerly.