"Well," Bruno said, a little doubtfully, "I think I'll take some plum-pudding, please while I think of it."
"Oh, Bruno!" (This was a whisper from Sylvie.) "It isn't good manners to ask for a dish before it comes!"
And Bruno whispered back "But I might forget to ask for some, when it comes, oo knowI do forget things, sometimes," he added, seeing Sylvie about to whisper more.
And this assertion Sylvie did not venture to contradict.
Meanwhile a chair had been placed for the Other Professor, between the Empress and Sylvie. Sylvie found him a rather uninteresting neighbour: in fact, she couldn't afterwards remember that he had made more than one remark to her during the whole banquet, and that was "What a comfort a Dictionary is!" (She told Bruno, afterwards, that she had been too much afraid of him to say more than "Yes, Sir," in reply; and that had been the end of their conversation. On which Bruno expressed a very decided opinion that that wasn't worth calling a 'conversation' at all. "Oo should
