Part 1 of Fahrenheit 451 continues and Montag goes to work at the firehouse. He's followed by a robotic hound with eight legs. It growls at him suspiciously.
He says it's out to get him, but Captain Beatty, his boss, dismisses him. his concerns. He does agree to have technicians check it out. Now a week passes and Montag sees Clarice every day when he leaves his house. Sometimes they talk.
Clarice asks questions about why life is the way it is. Montag asks why she isn't in school. She replies, applies with a long answer about being antisocial, at least according to how school defines it. She thinks most people don't talk about anything real. They all say the same things.
Most dire of all, she's afraid of teenagers who shoot at each other or die in car wrecks from chasing each other at high speeds. The hound here is described as something that lived but did not live. In this way, it's a lot like people in this society.
Also, Clarice's growing importance is shown when her relationship with Mon- Montag is established into a routine of conversation. She continues to ask frank, disturbing questions, as if they'd been friends for years. At one point, she even asks why he doesn't have children, another missing factor in his life. His wife never wanted him.
The rift between Montag and Mildred is apparent.