'And then they cut him up?'

'They dissected the subject, yes…'

'…I wouldn't have thought that was your sort of thing, Clarence…'

'I know… I felt a bit sick at first, but it was strangely fascinating…'

'Who was this poor fellow?'

'I don't know, Ida, look, that's not the point…'

'…not the point?'

'Ida, just look…'

Clarence thrust a folded newspaper under her nose. Just below the fold, a quarter page advertisement was clearly visible

"Never before documented in the history of human anatomy," read Ida, "the remarkable…"

'The picture, Ida, the picture…'

There was a picture, a rather good woodcut of the face of the unfortunate deceased. The artist – Clarence, no doubt - had managed to portray an expression of serenity that seemed at odds with the fact that the man was the subject of a public dissection. The man could not have been more than 25 years old, and Ida felt a chill as she wondered how he had met his death…

'Well?'

She looked up to see Clarence, fairly bursting with pride.

'Well what?'

'What do you think of the picture?'

Ida shrugged

'I wonder why they didn't use one of those new fangled photo - graphs…' she began, but stopped when she saw Clarence's expression , 'I'm joking! I'm joking, it's very good indeed… Which paper is it?'

'Oh… Some scientific journal or other. They probably couldn't afford a photograph.'

'No, Clarence, seriously, it's very good…'

Ida looked down at the advertisement again

"Astoundingly, the normal left/right asymmetry of the arrangement of the internal organs appears to have been reversed…"

'What's this, then?' she asked, reading it aloud

'Oh,' Clarence waved a hand vaguely, 'they got all excited when they started dissecting that fellow, something about where his liver was or something. Whatever it was, they thought it was important enough to place that advertisement, they thought it would draw a big crowd. I'm going back, anyway. It's tonight.'

Ida couldn't help but frown slightly, the thought was still faintly distasteful,

'The study of anatomy,' proclaimed Clarence, 'is vital to the artist if he hopes to accurately depict the human form.'

'If you say so. Anyway, you had better get a move on – it says here that it starts at seven. And I suppose you'll want a good view.'

'Gosh, yes,' said Clarence, looking at his watch. 'Ida, I don't suppose you would do me the honour of walking with me as far as Marble Arch? It seems like we haven't spoken in ages, I still haven't heard all about what happened with Lady Crispin-Eastwood…'

Ida grinned, that certainly was a long story

'I'll fetch my hat.'