The White Queen only looked at her in a helpless frightened
sort of way, and kept repeating something in a whisper to
herself that sounded like 'bread-and-butter, bread-and-butter,'
and Alice felt that if there was to be any conversation at all,
she must manage it herself. So she began rather timidly: 'Am I
addressing the White Queen?'

'Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing,' The Queen said. 'It
isn't MY notion of the thing, at all.'

Alice thought it would never do to have an argument at the very
beginning of their conversation, so she smiled and said, 'If your
Majesty will only tell me the right way to begin, I'll do it as
well as I can.'

'But I don't want it done at all!' groaned the poor Queen.
'I've been a-dressing myself for the last two hours.'

It would have been all the better, as it seemed to Alice, if
she had got some one else to dress her, she was so dreadfully
untidy. 'Every single thing's crooked,' Alice thought to
herself, 'and she's all over pins!--may I put your shawl
straight for you?' she added aloud.

'I don't know what's the matter with it!' the Queen said, in a
melancholy voice. 'It's out of temper, I think. I've pinned it
here, and I've pinned it there, but there's no pleasing it!'

'It CAN'T go straight, you know, if you pin it all on one side,'