Jane looked at the clothes, more sober in their colours than the dresses of the first room, but nevertheless indicating the kind of flamboyance to be seen perhaps in London, but very seldom in Bath. Tirard pulled one ensemble from the racks, a dark red frock coat, narrow check trousers, red and black, and a silver waistcoat.

‘Séducteur?’ he said, with a raise of his manicured eyebrows.

He moved towards Jane with the costume, then held it close to her body, inviting Julietta to admire the way the vivid reds set off her colouring, and now Jane understood; she was here to complete the transformation she had already felt in herself. She was going to become a man.

More and more outfits were selected by Tirard and held against Jane’s body. Each one provoked such excitement in Julietta that her pale cheeks were soon cherry-coloured and sweat began to glimmer on her beautiful brow.

‘Jane, Jane!’ she cried out. ‘I love them all. Which do you like? Which shall we try on?’

Now Jane felt torn between the peculiar horror the place had provoked in her and Julietta’s excitement at the idea of dressing her in men’s clothes. ‘In most conflicts between desire and other sentiments,’ Emmeline had once said to her, ‘desire always wins.’ And Jane suspected that it would win now.

She and Julietta were led behind a silk curtain. Julietta reached up and gave her a long ardent kiss. ‘Like this,’ she whispered, ‘I am going to love you more than I have ever loved anyone.’ Both the kiss and Julietta’s words stirred Jane to follow Julietta’s breathless instructions. She obediently disrobed, her clothes being almost torn from her by Julietta’s nimble hands, and put on a white shirt, green and black striped trousers, a green waistcoat and a black frock coat.

Julietta dashed out from behind the curtain to ask Monsieur Tirard for a tie and a top hat. She returned to arrange the tie very tenderly in a perfect bow, just as she might have done for her husband. Then she produced a tortoiseshell comb from her purse, brushed Jane’s hair back from her face and secured it in a tight chignon. She handed Jane the top hat and Jane put it on. When this was done, she turned Jane round towards a long, tarnished mirror, draped with a feather boa.

‘Look,’ she said. ‘Now we are the perfect couple. We can do anything we want. We only need one more thing.’

Julietta went out again and Jane heard her whispering to Monsieur Tirard and Tirard say to her, ‘Signóra, vous êtes sublime! Mais vous savez ces choses-là coûtent chers. Ils sont defendus … ’

‘Je le sais,’ said Julietta. ‘But I adore risk. You know me by now, Monsieur Tirard. I am in love this time. Please give me what I need.’

Jane heard them walk away into another part of the shop. She turned her gaze on her own reflection. The change in her was impressive and she would have been entertained, even mildly excited by it had she not been besieged by the sudden and devastating realisation that Julietta, greeted as an old friend by Monsieur Tirard, had surely been through this very same erotic game with other lovers.