stretch (girdle), tugged the beige, rayon silk stockings up to my thighs and with trembling fingers eventually got the garters attached. In spite of my nervousness my excitement was mounting, and I was glad of the firm elastic material across my front. The pink celanese knickers I next stepped into intensified this feeling. As the bra and slip straps would have been fully visible with this evening dress I decided not to put them on, so I next struggled with the shoes, which were just the right size, and found the straps easier to fasten than they had looked to be. My knees had now turned watery my slim young ankles encased in the stockings and the definitively feminine shoe shape pleased me beyond measure. I shrugged into the dress, letting the heavy crepe tumble down over my body. The hooks and eyes at the side of the waist were very awkward.

As I loosely knotted the belt I heard Mrs. Finlay call, "Are you ready yet?"

I forced a, "Yes, please come in." out of a dry throat, telling myself to appear casual before the first woman to see me in the clothing of her

own sex.

"Oh, it does suit you!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide and smiling as they roved over me. Seeing the shoes peeping out from the hem of the gown she seemed genuinely pleased to realize they fitted well. "Can you walk in them all right?" I moved slowly across the room, thrilling to the unfamiliar tiptoe feeling the shoes imparted to me. She then noticed I hadn't fastened the hooks and eyes evenly, and in a businesslike way came up to me, undid the belt and the fastenings, and proceeded to re- fasten them with light, fast fingers. I was blushing, as I felt sure she must have seen the waist elastic and a few inches of the material of my knickers while the side of the dress was agape, but evidently she had not, for stepping back and looking at me with her head slightly to one side she said, almost as if thinking out loud and I shall never forget the strange electric thrill her words gave me "All you want now is a short pair of knickers underneath."

—

I realize now, that by extending to me this suggestion, she was im- plicitly giving her full approval to my dressing as a woman. The under- wear was to her an essential part of the costume, and what I did actually have on underneath met with her approval. I felt the nerves tingle under the clinging leg elastics of the knickers (they were not much longer than baby doll bloomers, just covering my garters, in fact). However, I was too shy to raise my dress to answer her spoken reverie,