cordingly rewarded. Furthermore, she herself was planning a trip and the entire situation would be self-resolving.

There was another area of doubt in Mrs. Cooper's mind concern- ing her son a doubt that was both deepened and solved in curious fashion when her son disappeared one afternoon. As he had been invited to the boss's place the day before, Mrs. Cooper felt he might have gone there and she telephoned the boss's wife. That worthy per- sonage stated that although she had not seen him that day, she knew where he was and that Mrs. Cooper should relax, for "The dear has planned a surprise for you and I daren't spoil it for him.”

The answer did not calm Mrs. Cooper that much and she couldn't help wondering about the nature of the "surprise."

She hurried to the door when the buzzer rang, expecting her son and was annoyed to see a tall young woman standing there holding several boxes. "I'm sorry, we don't want any," said Mrs. Cooper as she closed the door.

"Mother!"

"Oh my lord!" she gasped. Peter had come home.

"It was really the boss's wife's idea,” explained Peter as his mother slowly revived. "I was complaining about how terribly my hair was and she suggested I get a permanent-in fact, she called up her own hairdresser and made an appointment for me yesterday even paid for it herself. And she insisted I go back there afterward so she could see how it looked. How do you like it?” asked Peter guilelessly as he gently patted the hairdo.

“Uh-—fine, fine but those clothes you have on-they're not yours! And what's all these boxes?”

"Well, that was her idea they used to belong to her son-you know -he went through this same thing."

Mrs. Cooper was not adjusting very well to her son's appearance. Putting him into dresses had been one thing-but she had never in- sisted on such close attention to detail. For one thing, the linen sheath was very chic—and undoubtedly quite expensive, and it hugged a fig-

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