Transvestia

So that, although a little heavy-hearted, he did not hesitate to pack his bags and leave for home, as Uncle John's house had long since become for him.

Rosa, the old housekeeper, who had always been so motherly towards him, met him at the front door of Uncle John's somewhat isolated house, which stood on the outskirts of the little country town of West- leigh. She greeted him warmly and told him that his uncle was out, but would soon be back. No sooner did Evie see him than he knew something was very much amiss, for he had a strained look in his eyes. The welcome was none the less sincere, but Evie, who was curious to know what it was all about, was glad when his uncle, still with an arm round his shoulder, led him into his study and shut the door. They sat down facing each other across the table and, after a mom- ent's silence during which he looked searchingly at his nephew's face as if debating within himself whether to tell him of his problem, Uncle John began. speaking.

"Evie, I am going to tell you a lot of things I should have told you before and I hope I shall not shock you too much. My sister, Amy, whom you've never met, as she left for Australia several years before you were born, is extremely wealthy, as her late husband, who died some ten years ago, did very well in mining. Unfortunately, she never had any children of her own, so, on the passing of her hus- band, and feeling very lonely, she adopted an orphan girl, Mary, who would be about the same age as you. She seldom wrote to me, but, on one occasion, she told me that she intended settling her money on Mary and on you. And this is where I erred and where you are now in for a shock, she thought that you were a girl! As you know, your name Evelyn, is both 'that of a boy and that of a girl. She wrote so intently about her distant "niece", whom she would never meet, as she would never be leaving Australia, that I thought it would prove a disappointing disillusion- ment to her to learn that you were really a boy, so

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