"Always speak the truth," said the Red Queen (cocking her nose at the
White)--"think before you speak--and _write it down afterwards_. It's
safest, if you're dealing with _some_ persons."

"That's just what I complain of," said the White Queen, loftily. "You
couldn't tell the truth--about that Table--if you tried with both
hands."

"I don't tell the truth with my _hands_," the Red Queen objected,
icily.

"Nobody said you did," said the White Queen. "Nobody said you told
it _anyhow_. I said you couldn't if you tried. And you _don't_ try
either. So _there_!"

"She's in that state of mind," said the Red Queen, "that she wants to
deny _something_--only she doesn't know what to deny!"

"A nasty vicious temper," the White Queen remarked; and then there was
an uncomfortable silence for a month or two.

The White Queen broke the silence by saying to the Red Queen, "I
invite you to ALICE's Party--which _used_ to be neutral ground--to
explain, if you _can_, that nondescript nonsense of yours about
National Councils as a substitute for Home Rule."

The Red Queen smiled sourly, and said, "And I invite _you_"

"I didn't know _I_ was to have a Party at all," said ALICE. "Parties
are things I don't hold with, as a rule; too great a tax and a tie. I