could keep his balance—and, as his eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite direction, and he didn't take the least notice of her, she thought he must be a stuffed figure, after all.
"And how exactly like an egg he is!" she said aloud, standing with her hands ready to catch him, for she was every moment expecting him to fall.
"It's very provoking," Humpty Dumpty said, after a long silence, looking away from Alice as he spoke, "to be called an egg—very!"
"I said you looked like an egg, Sir," Alice gently explained. "And some eggs are very pretty, you know," she added, hoping to turn her remark into a sort of compliment.
"Some people," said Humpty Dumpty, looking away from her as usual, "have no more sense than a baby!"
Alice didn't know what to say to this; it wasn't at all like conversa-
