Part IV

"What an intellectual this man must be!" thought Alice. She had heard the word intellectual used at dinner parties and knew that grown-ups reserved it for the best guests, who were usually professors. "So if a professor is someone who teaches how to do experiments, this man, who calls himself my father, is probably a scholar. Because he knows how to experiment." Alice felt very wise and in control because she now knew this in her brain. No one could hurt you if your brain knew things. She smiled a little as they sped up the road. She wondered if she should chat with the stranger, the way her mother did with men. She decided not to.

The Actual Meaning of The Word 'Intellectual'

A person who thinks of knowledge and does something with it.

"But where are we going?" asked Alice presently.

The stranger tapped his beard. "To the tower--that doesn't matter now," he interrupted himself to say. He also spit as he pronounced the letter 't.' Alice hated this. But how could one argue with a father who is also an intellectual? Anyway, she couldn't think of anything saucy to say at the moment, and when one can't think of anything kind or witty to say, one must keep quiet, which is exactly what Alice did all the way up the blue mountain to the tower' garage, where the stranger parked his motorcar.