RANSVESTIA

Instantly, Wendell was at her side. "My dear madame, surely you know that the mother of a Queen is above explanations.'

"Oh, yeah yeah, that's right. I forgot." She blinked at her new-found knowledge. "Hey, I can't wait to tell the girls at the Club."

Leaving step-mummy to consolidate her social gains (she lacked the imagination to even realize what had happened to her), the Prince led me outside and pausing, said, “We were interrupted the other evening." We resumed what was rapidly becoming our favorite pass time.

"You will make a beautiful queen,” he murmured.

Perhaps for the very fiirst time, I suddenly realized that, as a matter of fact, I would at that . . .

Did they live happily ever after? Absurdly so. We became bride and groom in due course, then King and Queen, and all the rest. Perhaps if I had been any older than eighteen things might not have been so smooth. But I adjusted very quickly to everything. And it was an absolute ball, day in and day out. We were supposed to be ornamental, and we were all of that. A good part of my life was to be spent standing around posing in some of the most fantastic clothing.

The most marvellous thing happened in our third year of marriage when the birth of our twin sons was announced. Everyone was happy; the line was secure once more, and after nearly a year's absence the King and Queen could return to public life. (It is considered a social gaffe for the nobility of either sex to appear in public with the Queen in an “in- teresting condition." Of course, it would have been even more interesting had we actually done so. One doesn't see a pregnant King every day, you know, even in a story book.)

Now is as good a time as any to close the book, but one character re- mains to be accounted for, the person who brought all this about. Wen- dell, I'm forced to admit, is still with us. He came along to insure that the new Queen would always look her radiant best a task he excelled at. I didn't know at first how to thank him for all he had done (“Cool it, Queen- ie. You'll think of something.") but at the suggestion of the King he was made a member of the nobility. It seemed only appropriate that he should become a Lady. ("Ye Gods! he had said, "I'm real!") He had taken to