The exclamation “I wish I hadn’t mentioned Dinah!” captures Alice’s recognition that what seems normal in her world—praising a beloved pet cat—carries very different implications in a society of birds and a mouse. She has unintentionally invoked a predator in a room full of prey. The line is wryly understated: rather than calling the social disaster what it is, Alice couches it as a simple wish, highlighting her politeness and her still-forming grasp of Wonderland’s rules. The moment also reveals her loneliness. The creatures scatter at the mere description of Dinah’s hunting prowess (“she’ll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!”), and Alice’s immediate regret signals a turn from blithe chatter to reflective self-correction. In a book that repeatedly scrambles classroom morals and social etiquette, this line shows Alice beginning to adapt. She is learning that language has consequences not only for logic but for social belonging, and that empathy requires imagining how her words sound to those unlike herself. The regret therefore marks a small step in her growing capacity to navigate Wonderland’s alien norms.