Alice repressed her own feeling on the matter; she was hardly the type to confide in anyone, much less a complete stranger. Nevertheless, she was grateful for the distraction of her food arriving, using it as an excuse to focus on cutting her meat as she tried to push her own troubling thoughts on the matter from her mind.

"I'm not sure it's a paradise," she finally said, thoughtfully, "but it's at least better than the world I left behind."