text: > go downward
  It would be wise to remove your disguise before you attempt to leave through the hotel's front doors.
  
  > go to the north
  Grand Ballroom, south side
  The grand ballroom of the Emerson Hotel is a busy spin of high society's young and old. Exits lead in all directions.
  
  > go east
  Grand Ballroom, southeast corner
  This corner of the ballroom is warm and redolent of potent beverages, which are being served behind a mirrored bar. Sulty night air from the open veranda doors to the north gives the area a dreamlike feel.
  
  > go west
  This slightly curved parlour room with gold, ornamented wallpaper and settees with silk pillows provides an intermediate sitting area, bathed in yellow candlelight. Seating is plentiful, and a set of private salon doors lead northwest and west. A doorless portal leads north. The door to the west is closed; the other is open.
  
  > go north
  The curt spice of Turkish tobacco raids your senses and leaves them stinging. The ceiling is sooty from years of cigar and cigarette smoke, as are the paintings -- one of which has recently been moved, revealing a rectangular outline of a cleaner, lighter wall behind. Old books, charged with acidic odours, stand yellowing on ceiling-high bookcases. Large, masculine furnishings form a circle in the center of the room. A short, camouflaged door lies uniquely hidden between two of the bookcases on the east wall.
  
  > Examine books
  There are many books here. You have no interest in taking any -- neither a borrower nor a lender be, after all. You content yourself to scan the shelves, as if browsing in a bookstore.
  
  > search the books
  Your eye alights on a volume titled, "Mende Thy Wicked Waies" by the Rev. E. Arthur Shropshire.
  
  > read book
  Your gaze falls on a novel called, "Journey to Damascus" by Marcus T. Parella.
  
  > read the journey
  What do you want to read in?
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a book titled, "Of Opticks and the Grinding of Lenses" by Otto Seymour.
  
  > read the books
  Your gaze falls on a rare scientific volume detailing the mating habits of small rodents.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a volume called, "From Alpha to Omega: A Theological History" by Onislav Woczyknikzi.
  
  > look at the wall
  (the cleaner rectangle)
  The lighter surface of the wall has been revealed partially behind the watercolour painting.
  
  > look at the painting
  There are four paintings: two portraits, a still life, and a watercolour landscape.
  
  > get it
  That's hardly portable.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a tome titled, "Essentials of Living" by Emerson Frost and Walter Pratt.
  
  > feel the wall
  (the cleaner rectangle)
  You feel nothing unexpected.
  
  > read read the books
  What do you want to read in?
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a book on the subject of European cheesemakers in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a volume concerning European cheesemakers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a tome entitled, "Discoveries in Human Anatomy" by Charles Edmund Hawthorne, Percy C. Blake and Daniel Merriwether.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a volume called, "How to Host a Dinner Party" by K. Somerset.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a volume titled, "Joy of Life, Pain of Death" by Nathan Feinberg.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a tome dedicated to the study of apian migratory patterns.
  
  > read the books
  Your gaze falls on a book titled, "Lancaster, Leominster, and Leicester" by L. Lawrence Lilly.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a volume on the subject of Mediterranean shipping channels.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a volume titled, "Take a Holiday" by John McCormack.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a tome titled, "Papacy in the Middle Ages" by Nathan Pendleton and Franklin Cromwell.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a biography of Martin Luther.
  
  > move painting
  Those are fixed in place.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a book titled, "Keeper of the Flame" by Reginald Tuchs.
  
  > read the books
  Your gaze falls on a book on the subject of stone age tools and weaponry.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a volume called, "Vesuvius" by Carl Raft.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a book titled "A Critical Guide to Modern Shakespeare" by Orson Stonecraft.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a volume titled, "The Compleat Francis Bacon" by Thomas G. King.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a volume concerning Da Vinci's unfinished horse sculpture.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a volume called, "Raphael and Titian" by Marcus Polsky.
  
  > read the books
  Your gaze falls on a book on the subject of eel fishing.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a volume titled, "The Discoveries of Tycho Brahe, Volume II" by Francis M. Grant and R. M. McKellen.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a volume on the subject of the steam engines.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a volume called, "A Practical Guide to Lockpicking" by George Mason.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a volume concerning Shakespeare's history plays.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a book titled, "Mozart and Freemasonry" by Casper Peabody.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a book titled, "Gutenberg's Printing Press" by Harrison Alexander.
  
  > read the books
  You come across a volume on the subject of animal husbandry.
  
  > read the books
  Your gaze falls on a book on the subject of sainthood in the early Christian church.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a book titled, "Avalanche of Reason: The Era of Enlightened Thinking" by Dr. David A. Kelly.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye alights on a book on the subject of Cambridge University.
  
  > read the books
  Your eye picks out a volume titled, "The Edge of the Earth: The Voyages of Magellan" by Percival MacManus.
  
  > open the door
  You open the door.
  
  > go east
  Grand Ballroom, west side
  This side of the ballroom is much cooler than the other, although there is not much circulation of the air.
  
  A thick, forest-green drapery conceals a small private door -- perfectly concealed to all but the trained eyes of the Kissing Bandit.
  
  > examine private
  The door leads west out of the ballroom.
  
  > Go west
  The curt spice of Turkish tobacco raids your senses and leaves them stinging. The ceiling is sooty from years of cigar and cigarette smoke, as are the paintings -- one of which has recently been moved, revealing a rectangular outline of a cleaner, lighter wall behind. Old books, charged with acidic odours, stand yellowing on ceiling-high bookcases. Large, masculine furnishings form a circle in the center of the room. The door to the ballroom is open to the east.
  
  > search the wall
  (the cleaner rectangle)
  You find nothing of interest.
  
  > Attack wall
  (the cleaner rectangle)
  Violence isn't the answer to this one.
  
  > kick the wall
  (the cleaner rectangle)
  Save it for the bugs.
  
  > examine the paintings
  There are four paintings: two portraits, a still life, and a watercolour landscape.
  
  > move the portrait
  Which do you mean, the portrait of an imperious old gentleman or the portrait of a handsome woman?
  
  > Imperious
  It is fixed in place.
  
  > examine it
  The gentleman has moustaches rivaling yours, only his are naturally grown. White-haired, face creased with wise lines, cupping a pocketwatch with one hand and a walking stick in the other, he is clearly a man of worldly accomplishment and power.
  
  > look at handsome
  Not just any woman do you consider handsome; this one you verily do. In her frocks and blouse, velvet and silk, steely posture, square chin upthrust, eyes lightly lidded, black hair immaculately fitted into a bun with not a single stray strand, she bespeaks of primness, prudishness, probity, and virtue. At the same time, she looks as if she were probably sour company, but it is often difficult to judge a person by their painted portrait; the artist always lends his own bias to the character. Artists, after all, must make choices in order to make art.
  
  > remove the mask
  You take off the black mask.
  
  > remove all
  door: That's hardly portable.
  smoky odours: Physically impossible, even for the Kissing Bandit. cleaner rectangle: That's hardly portable.
  sooty ceiling: That's hardly portable.
  paintings: They're hardly portable.
  portrait of an imperious old gentleman: That's hardly portable. portrait of a handsome woman: That's hardly portable.
  still life: That's hardly portable.
  watercolour landscape: That's hardly portable.
  books: They are curiosities of this moment only; none are worth taking.
  
  > look at the ceiling
  (the sooty ceiling)
  It is an ugly but otherwise unnoteworthy blackening.
  
  > Smell odours
  You smell aged cigar and cigarette smoke.
  
  > Clean ceiling
  (the sooty ceiling)
  The sooty ceiling looks a little cleaner now.
  
  > Doff moustache
  You take off the fake moustache.
  
  > Doff cloak
  You take off the velvet cloak.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a black mask
  a fake moustache
  a pair of buckled boots (being worn)
  a velvet cloak
  a rakish hat
  a locket (being worn and closed)
  a grouch bag (being worn)
  
  > Doff boots
  You take off the pair of buckled boots.
  
  > Doff locket
  You take off the locket.
  
  > throw the the locket to the the dogs
  black mask: That can't contain things.
  fake moustache: That can't contain things.
  pair of buckled boots: That can't contain things.
  velvet cloak: That can't contain things.
  rakish hat: That can't contain things.
  locket: That can't contain things.
  wrist: That can't contain things.
  
  I only understood you as far as wanting to throw the locket.
  
  > go east
  Grand Ballroom, west side
  This side of the ballroom is much cooler than the other, although there is not much circulation of the air. A thick drapery conceals a small private door to the west.
  
  > go to the south
  Grand Ballroom, southwest corner
  This corner of the ballroom is cool and shaded, with a russet portico leading west to a series of private salons.
  
  Young Peaches-and-Cream stands here, fanning herself lightly.
  
  > go to the west
  This slightly curved parlour room with gold, ornamented wallpaper and settees with silk pillows provides an intermediate sitting area, bathed in yellow candlelight. Seating is plentiful, and a set of private salon doors lead northwest and west. A doorless portal leads north.