There was, as Clarice had anticipated, a crowd at the station, as it was market day in Crumel, and many sellers and buyers were leaving by the 6.30 train. Slipping unnoticed through the crowd, she obtained her ticket from a clerk too busy to glance up, and got into an empty first-class smoking carriage. She did not like the atmosphere, as her sense of smell was delicate, but it was necessary to keep up the deception of manliness, and, moreover, in a smoker she was not likely to meet with any local women friends, who might penetrate her disguise. Also Clarice smoked herself a little, having first done so out of bravado, because Anthony had laughed at her early attempt. She, therefore, lighted a cigarette, and tried to feel herself a man. What she did feel was undoubtedly a delightful sense of freedom, and regretted again, as she had often regretted before, that she had not been born with a beard. Nature had undoubtedly made a mistake in creating Clarice a woman. Perhaps owing to the similarity of the twin's looks, she had confused the souls, and had given to Clarice the body which was truly Ferdy's. In due time the young gentleman--Clarice felt herself to be truly a young gentleman--arrived at Liverpool Street Station, and hailed a cab. She told the man to drive to a quiet West End hotel, where Ferdy sometimes stopped, when it was too late to return home to his quarters in Dr. Jerce's Harley Street house. Here Clarice was quite delighted with the result of her masquerade. Everyone, including the landlord, the barmaid, and the waiters, took her for Ferdy, and she was given the dinner table at which Ferdy usually sat. And from the smirk of the barmaid, who inquired if Mr. Baird would take a glass of sherry before dinner, Clarice gathered some information as to Ferdy's urban habits. After Clarice had placed her bag in the bedroom--and only then did it occur to her that she could have assumed her evening dress in Town--she ordered a hansom, and drove to the Mascot Music Hall. It was a magnificent, palatial structure, decorated and painted and gilded like the Golden House of Nero. For the first time in her quiet life Clarice found herself in such a place, and was astonished at the blaze of light, the number of well-dressed people, the quantity of flowers, and the numerous aids to pleasure which she beheld on every hand. Also, she was surprised to see what a lot of liquor was drunk, and wondered if it was necessary to keep up her assumed character by ordering a whisky and soda. Although some acrobats were performing on the splendid stage, it was yet early, and the house was not yet quite full. Clarice was thus enabled to secure a very comfortable stall. As the evening grew later, the seats on all sides of her were gradually filled, but she found that the one next to her remained empty.