"Oh, Miss Clarry, Miss Clarry, your lovely hair," wept Mrs. Rebson, and but that Ferdy's life--as she thought--depended upon the assumption of Ferdy's personality, she would then and there have refused to join in, what seemed to her, to be a mad, fantastic scheme. "What's the use of going on in this way?" asked Clarice, angrily. "Perhaps I am acting foolishly, but it's the only chance that I can see of saving Ferdy from his enemies. Come, Nanny, cut my hair, and trim it--not too short." Mrs. Rebson, with the tears streaming down her wrinkled face, manipulated the scissors. "What will the captain say?" "Nothing," retorted Clarice, "when I tell him my reason. Anthony has every confidence in me. I dare say he'll be shocked, but I can't help that. There "--she surveyed her cropped head in the glass, and was surprised to see how remarkably she resembled Ferdy--"no one will ever guess that I am not my brother." "Ah!" said Mrs. Rebson, pointedly, "you may deceive a man, but you'll never get a woman to believe in you." "I'll try, at all events," said Clarice, thinking of Zara. "Come, Nanny, help me to dress." Mrs. Rebson was not of much use, and she wept most of the time, so Clarice set her to work to re-pack the Gladstone bag. In it was stowed a tweed suit, since Clarice was rapidly assuming a spare evening dress of Ferdy's. Also he had left behind him, luckily, a fur-lined coat, and Clarice had purchased in the High Street a silk hat, ostensibly for her brother, but really for her masquerade. Ferdy was very extravagant in the matter of clothes, and no doubt much of the squandered two thousand pounds had gone on his wardrobe, so that the girl was easily able to array herself in the evening purple and fine linen of a young man about town. When she was dressed--when the fur coat was on, when the silk hat was worn, and when Clarice placed a cigarette in her mouth--even Mrs. Rebson was startled, and stared, open-mouthed, at the change. "Oh, deary, mercy me," cried Mrs. Rebson, raising her hands, "I really should take you for Master Ferdy, my dear." "Rippin' old Nanny," said Clarice, with so exact an imitation of her brother's voice that Mrs. Rebson jumped. "It's not right--it really ain't right," she blubbered. "You might be my darling boy from the looks of you and the voice of you." "That's as it should be. Now, Nanny, kiss me, and wish me God speed." "Never," said Mrs. Rebson, energetically, "when you're doing exactly what Moses said you shouldn't do, and wearing man's clothes." "To save Ferdy, Nanny," murmured Clarice, and, gained the kiss and the blessing. Then, the servants being at their tea, she slipped down with the Gladstone bag in her hand, and went out by the French window of the drawing-room. Mrs. Rebson, at the bedroom window, saw her disappear up the lane. "It might be Master Ferdy himself," said Mrs. Rebson, with a heavy heart, and prepared to carry out her part of the deception.