encourage me, you see.’

‘Of course I’ll wait,’ said Alice: ‘and thank you very much for coming so far — and for the song — I liked it very much.’

‘I hope so,’ the Knight said doubtfully: ‘but you didn’t cry so much as I thought you would.’

So they shook hands, and then the Knight rode slowly away into the forest. ‘It won’t take long to see him off, I expect,’ Alice said to herself, as she stood watching him. ‘There he goes! Right on his head as usual! However, he gets on again pretty easily — that comes of having so many things hung round the horse — ’ So she went on talking to herself, as she watched the horse walking leisurely along