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could not but help feel an increasing sense of pride in the way her son had been able to stand up against her super-critical, and often grossly unfair attitude, without his ever once showing, either any sign of giving up on his resolve, or attempting to retaliate in word or deed.

As earlier promised, Jan had taken over the duty of also laundering his mother's lingerie as soon as he had mastered the workings of their washer and dryer, also had been instructed in the fine arts of ironing. Now returning these items each afternoon, properly washed, ironed and carefully folded, ready for her immediate use. As anticipated in this particular task, he found it to be a job he very much enjoyed doing, as providing an opportunity for handling her most intimate garments, that were far more dainty and luxurious than those he had the privilege of wearing himself.

Susan was fully aware of the miserable manner in which she continued to treat her son, and often was strongly tempted to acknowledge to him the fine job he was doing, not only in competently running the house, which he had now assumed full responsibility for, but also in preparing the meals. The latter he had now largely taken over from Susan, after she had taught him the rudiments of cooking, and for which he found that he had a natural flair, to the extent, that with the assistance of several good cook books, he was

beginning to even outstrip his teacher.

Unfortunately, it was all too easy for Susan to continue criticising the way her son was now always dressed, for in truth her cast off clothes did not look at all well on him, regardless of how much satisfaction he got out of wearing them.

The principal difficulty being, that they were all much too mature for him. She could easily have helped out with certain suggestions, that were obvious to her, as to how he could importantly improve his appearance, but she still had not any intention of doing so, until it suited her purposes.

For example, she could just as readily have provided him with a set of falsies, to fill out his bra and to give him a more fine appearing bust, but although she recognized how much this would improve his looks, again she did not chose to do so, at least for the present.

The real reason that was now behind Susan's reluctance to give in to Jan, was due to her early recognition, that with her son's increasing mastery of the household duties, she had now very little to do in this respect, and as a result was now almost ready to look for the job she so much wanted.

Consequently, she did not want to make any changes just now in their present arrange-