Alice opened the door and went in. The room was full of smoke. The Duchess was sitting on a stool, she was holding a baby; the cook was stirring soup in a big pot. ‘There’s too much pepper in that soup!’ said Alice to herself. There was certainly much pepper in the air, so everybody was sneezing. The baby was sneezing and crying loudly. Only the cat who was sitting near the fireplace wasn't sneezing. It was smiling very strangely, from ear to ear. Alice asked, in surprise, why their cat was smiling like that, and the Duchess answered that it was smiling so just because it was a Cheshire cat.