18.

Impossible for mother made it just right for me. It fitted very well through the shoulders and waist and cov- ered my padded bosom beautifully. Too, it's full skirt was perfect for my slim-hipped figure--adding the illu- sion of curves where there actually weren't any.

My shoes were the same black suede pumps I had worn before. Then mother went to work on the rest of me. Å complete course of make up, with more things than I knew existed, was followed by a soft pink nail polish and while it was drying she started on my hair. If nothing else, I had thought that if would prove an insurmountable obstacle at least without a wig. But mother was clever as could be with her own hair, seldom wearing it the same 2 days in a row, and she had a lot of accessory pieces to help her. Fortunately our hair was almost exactly the same shade of dark brown so her pieces matched mine.

First of all she combed my hair severely back smooth- ing it till not an end stood out. Then across the nape of my neck she attached a large figure eight chignon. It was long enough to extend from ear to ear, and rather deep too, so it effectively covered the close-trimmed hair at the back of my head. Though it didn't particu- larly change my appearance when looking straight ahead, I only had to turn a bit to show the effect of long hair severely combed to a bun in back. But it was a rather severe hairdo, particularly for a person of my age, and that was apparent even to me. There really wasn't too much choice for mother just using hair pieces as she was, but by making me a little curly bang effect with a pin curl across the forehead she softened the severity a lot.

The final touch was added by a lot of costume jewel- ry including a pair of long dangling earrings that also helped to soften the hairdo. The effect, when mother finished was simply amazing. As I said, I hadn't believed that it was possible for me to look like a girl, but won- der of wonders I did. Certainly no "regular beauty" as mother had predicted, but I looked nice in a healthy,