Alex entered the mouse hole, expecting to find a dingy and dirty passage. However he was pleasantly surprised to find it instead led to a small but neat apartment.
There was a tiny bed and chest of drawers against one wall and a clothes tree with a single blue dress hanging from it, with a pretty blouse, a starched white crinoline, and a pretty apron. Alex puzzled over what to do. "I can't quite continue on naked," he considered. "And I'm getting quite cold. On the other hand, I shouldn't take things that don't belong to me. And a blue dress, well, it isn't even appropriate."
After due consideration, Alex decided that the lady who lived here would most likely be more upset to find him naked in her apartment than to find him wearing her dress. And so he took the clothes down from the clothes tree, and laid them on the bed.
Alex put on the blouse and did up the tiny buttons. He stepped into the crinoline, pulling it up to his waist, then slipped the blue dress over his head and fastened it in the back. He found a pair of white cotton panties in a drawer and felt that if the dress was forgiven then these certainly would be as well.