of my old life is fading very quickly and I don't know whether anything will happen to separate us again. But I don't think the arrival of that telegram has helped us in any way in that direction, and I've been told that another

really severe shock will probably lock us together forever.

Ian thought for a while. "Perhaps this is what I've been waiting for my love of woman hood and the marvellous joys of dressing in your clothes Have been preparing me to be a woman for life. And, if that's What's going to happen - well, I, For one, won't complain.' Which, after all, was just as well as he was quite unable to control his future no mat- ter what it might turn out to be.

After the news of Malcolm's death life for Ian and Millie moved along quietly with- drawn from the rest of the world except for routine nec- essary contacts. Everyone was SO sympathetic towards the young bride who had lost her husband within ten days of her wedding and respected her wish which coincided with the rigid conventions of the age - to be alone. And this solitude was of immense value to them both for it allowed them to come to terms with their situation. As the days passed Ian became less aware of his position and was ab- sorbed more and more by Millie, not only inhabiting her physical body but being sur- ounded and eased into his new world by her intelligence. He still knew perfectly well that he was lan and male, but his memory of his youth and his background, his knowledge

of the age into which he had been born, faded and dimin- ished until the autumn months of 1914 were to him reality and the 1960's and 70's only something vaguely remembered from a dream. For Millie, too, it seemed that she was starting

her life over again from the age of 21 and everything after that time, except for the fact of lan's presence sharing her body, vanished completely from her memory. The pair of them continued to talk to each other and to discuss matters but now it was on a basis of equality, of two partners in a single life, with Millie providing all the specialized knowledge and expertise required by their fem- aleness and feminity, and Ian being more of an accepted and beloved brother supplying, when necessary, the balancing masculine outlook. And as a recipe for success in life this could hardly be bettered. All the same Ian was continouously aware, sometimes lightly, some- times with an ecstacy almost unbearable in its intensity, of the joys of his existence? of the lifestyle he was following? of the clothes he could now permanently wear. This was dream fulfillment in the high- est possible degree. Ian had been very much aware that some- thing was troubling Millie, but she hadn't referred to it or given him an explanation. Now, in mid-October, her agitation returned full force, so much so that Ian was compelled to face up to the fact.

"Millie, darling, what's the matter- what's worrying you so?"

"Its its something should have happened in the middle of August. But it didn't. And I thought that that might be because of the news of Malcolm. But then it didn't happen again in the middle of September and now its getting on towards the middle of October and still nothing. And and I'm frigh- tened.

"Frightened?

what?"

But of

As has already been men- tioned Ian's knowledge of the workings of the female body, even though he'd been inhab- iting an exceptionally beautiful and healthy one for nearly

three months, was virtually nil and Millie's references meant nothing to him.

"I- I'm afraid that I that we may be going to have a baby!"

"A baby?" But-"

At first it didn't register with him that he was directly involved, that he would not be playing the normal male role in the impending birth, that he was about to become, not a father but a mother. When it did, had he been alone, he would have fainted outright. As it was Millie, having now faced up to her fears, sat down heavily on a chair,her face white as a sheet, while both their minds roved chaotically.

Not surprisingly, Millie adjusted to the knowledge that she was pregnant much more easily than Ian, but even he eventually managed to accept the fact that in the Spring of 1915 he was going to become a mother. Preparations went ahead a pace the purchase of baby clothes and equipment, the re- decoration of what had been Millie's own nursery and the refurbishing of the old family cradle of which she herself had been the last occuppant, the visits to the dressmaker for new clothes designed to adjust to the swelling figure, and the regular (and, at first, hideously embarassing) examina- tions by the family doctor.

As the end of the year approached Ian began to look forward to the time three and a half months ahead when the baby was expected to be born. Already the quickening had taken place and he could feel within himself the soft and gen- tle movements as the infant- his own baby stretched and kicked.

In the late afternoon of the last day of the year he was again seated at the bureau in spread accommodate the bulge of his stomach as he sat, writing letters. Idly he gazed out over the garden and park-