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During this period of silence on her part, she began to look at him with not only puzzlement, but with something almost akin to distain. She had always regarded her son as being a most manly sort of person, and this suddenly disclosed desire to now wear her clothes about the house, had rendered her practically speechless, also angry with frustration over being unable to understand what this was all about.

Taking advantage of his mother's silence, Jan hurried on, determined to justify himself, at the same time fully aware that he could wind up by making matters for himself still more difficult by attempting to explain his true feelings. He was fully aware that his mother was indeed very displeased, with not only his original request, but also his subsequent explanation, which instead of helping appeared to have made things much worse.

However, Jan was now more determined than ever to eventually obtain possession of this enticing array of dresses, skirts, blouses and robes, to say nothing of the lingerie included in this lot, consisting of panties, slips, girdles, and other items that he now coveted with a growing passion.

As his mother had not yet given her definite "no", he felt that he must continue in his attempt to convince her that she should turn all these clothes over to him for his very own use. Although he still could not look his mother in the face, but continued

to direct his gaze to the carpet at her feet, he hurried on,

"Mother, I have a proposal to make, that I hope you will consider fairly. If you will permit me to have same, or possibly all of the clothes in question, to wear as I have suggested, and which you propose to give away in any event, I will make it very much worth your while, by in turn relieving you of certain household duties. In other words, I would like to strike a bargain with you. In return for your acquiesence, I shall take over all responsibilities for keeping the house clean, that is, to do all the dusting, carpet cleaning and vacuuming. Actually, I have never really minded doing this kind of work in the past, except that at the same time it somehow felt wrong for a boy to be doing it.

But should I be wearing dresses at the time" and he added with a gulp, "also the usual things that go under dresses, then I would feel attired more appropriately, and as a result would better enjoy doing such tasks."

His mother at this point abruptly broke in, saying with a voice somewhat tinged with scorn,

"Jan, do you really mean to tell me, that under the circumstances of being dressed in my old cast off clothes, you would then actually think of yourself as a girl? Is that what you are trying to tell me? Really,