She agreed to help by getting me some pretty things from the shop when I needed them. Then she became quite excited herself at my girlish appearance and lovingly drew me down into her arms to kiss and caress this new daughter of hers. She approved Nell's experiment with my hair and said she would help undress me later, so that she could see how my corsets fitted and how I looked in my dainty undies and long silken stockings. Then, very happy, I went downstairs in my new frock with its swinging skirt, there to pass a delightful hour or two in the sitting-room as the new daughter.

Mother laughed affectionately at me as I came down the stairs deliberately holding out my skirt to show off my pretty legs and lacy undies. With both Mother and Nell to protect me from surprise discovery, I felt safe and could luxuriate in my feminine delights. Many a time was I now able to take pleasure and delight in the sen- sation of soft silks next to my body, the satisfying tightness and support of well-laced, well-fitted corsets, the special feeling of walking on girlish high heels and the swing and caress of skirts and petticoats on silk-sheathed legs. Nell loved to dress me up and to help me to become a well-dressed, dainty and even pretty girl. She got a wig of fair curls for a young girl, and she taught me simple make-up to match the appearance of the girls of those days. So for a couple of years, I lived a happy and freq- uently feminine life and felt myself to be more a girl than a boy. Even when I went out and had to put on boy's clothes, I often wore girl's undies, provided I wasn't going to school or elsewhere where they might have proved embarrassing. I even wore special straight corsets that were not so laced as to emphasize a girlish waist and figure. Mother seemed quite happy with her new daughter, and when my father went away I would be for a week at a time in petticoats every evening at least.

When I was nearly fourteen, I had a new and exciting exper- ience. Two boys, who were on a theatrical tour with their mother, came to my school while they were in our town. What was exciting was that they had long, beautiful curly hair, and even in their boy's clothes they looked really very girlish. I soon discovered that they were just that. They were twins--Bobbie and Leslie An- derson--and they appeared nightly in the local theatre in song and dance turns as twin girls. In school, it was soon as much as any- one dared do to chaff them, for they had plenty of spirit. Nat-

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