I am trying to figure out how to apply a background color to a paragraph of text without having the background color fill the entire div container. (In other words; I want the right edge of the paragraph to be jagged to fit the text, not a complete box with empty space)

Here are some picture of what I wish to achieve. The only example of what I want was in a Flash animation so I couldn't view the source.

Screenshot of what I HAVE:


Screenshot of WHAT I WANT it to look like:


Thank you so much for any help you can offer.