RANSVESTIA

not the beholdee, to coin another triple pun), the latter garment was coarse and stiff, and ugly. "It's like we girls all wore in the old country," said Mrs. Rosalia. "I had Tad's sister's cousin send it to me from Dublin."

"I had one myself," said my mother. "Wore it from the time I was 11 or 12 until I was 17. A training corset. I can remember our governess tightening the laces all the time ...'

"But it gave us that fine figure, didn't it?" said Mrs. Rosalia.

The orgy of clothes went on. It was discovered that I had a smaller foot than Carmel, which meant that a couple of pairs of shoes she had been unable to wear fit me perfectly.

—

In the end, it took us several trips spaced over the next few weekends to get everything home. And after just the first trip, I al- ready owned or had the custody and mandatory use of girls' clothes than my own boy's clothes. I will say this, too, that they were more impressive than my own. Carmel Rosalia had been an attractive girl, with the peculiar dark beauty caused by the mingling of the Spanish and Irish. She had set off her beauty with some rather vivid colors, so that my closet now seemed filled with an incredi- ble rainbow, rather than the decently sober dark tones I was used to.

Of course, it was not a complete wardrobe, although I was so stunned by what was there that I didn't notice any lack. I had suits, dresses, skirts, blouses in profusion, even two coats, one winter, one lightweight. Shoes and of course, that idiot formal. What else didn't I have?

—

"Since you'll be wearing these things now, I must buy you some things," my mother told me.

"What? My gosh, even if I wore them all the time..." I groaned.

"You need underthings," she said. And despite her earlier grumbling when she had had to buy the outfit for initiation, she came home the next night with several bags.