me and my bags were left. Amid tearfull fare- wells, while my mother and father went on to Victoria Station to train to Southhampton. Aunt Jane made me feel very welcome. She took me to her spare room which was a very pretty room, all lace and ruffles and a view over a park. Aunt Jane was much younger than mother and lived alone except for her housekeeper cook. She was also a very pretty lady and very fashionable. Her lady friends visited often while I was there and took tea together and on other days Aunt Jane would go out and I would be left to myself to read and draw. Once or twice Aunt Jane introduced me to her lady friends who were all young and very pretty and laughed a great deal. Once she said something which embarrassed me.

'Steven is much too pretty for a boy don't you think?'

Her lady friends all tittered and I ran off feeling very hot under the collar. Later that evening she apologised for embarrassing me but she also said it was true that I would have made a lovely girl. My mother and Miss Spriggs had said much the same thing on other occasions so I was used to it really. Just not in front of all those ladies.

Once Aunt Jane bought a new pair of shoes. They were the most beautiful shoes I had ever seen. I was there when she unwrapped them and I held one in my hand and marvelled at it. They were bright red satin with high fine heels, so delicate that I could hardly imagine how anyone could walk in them. Aunt Jane took off the shoes she was wearing and slipped on the red satin shoes and held up her dress and dis- played her pretty ankles for me and walked in them.

'There you are,' she said. 'It's easy to walk in them, they won't break.'

She took them off and passed them over to me. 'Here you try,' she insisted.

I took off my shoes and socks and put them on my feet and stood and tried to walk in them. They made me feel tall and made me walk very erect. I had trouble with the high heels. Aunt Jane laughed her pretty laugh.

'They look very nice on you,' she said. 'I hope they look as nice on me.' 'You wear them for

a while, break them in for me.'

She went off to change for dinner and I walked up and down my room in them, eventually get- ting quite used to the feel of them. I stopped at the window and watched some boys playing in the park. I did not want to play with them but I wondered what they would think if they knew I was walking around the house in my Aunt's high heeled shoes. I laughed about that thinking how smart I was to be able to do it. A little later Aunt Jane came by and took the shoes away from me.

'You can wear them again some other time,' she offered, smiling.

The very next night a most strange thing hap- pened. I was lying on my bed reading 'Alice In Wonderland' when my Aunt came by.

'Steve, darling, I want you to come into my room for a few moments.'

I got up and followed her down the hall to her beautiful bedroom. It was a huge room, furn- ished all in white lace and painted in a pretty apricot colour. Aunt Jane ushered me into her room. On the bed I noticed a pair of her lovely sheer silk stockings, so fine you could see the coverlet through them. The red shoes were alongside them and a pair of blue garters.

'Darling take off your shoes and socks, will you. I think there is something wrong with my red shoes and they were very expensive. I'd like to see them on you to see if I can make it out.' Obligingly I removed my shoes and socks.

'You'll need these, darling, in order for me to see properly,' she said bringing me the silk stockings and she eased my toes into them and rolled them up my legs and slipped the garters into place around my ankles. She was about to pull them up into place when she stopped.

- 'Oh Steven that's no good. Those knee britches won't help me to see how they look.'

She stood up and went to her wardrobe and took out a pair of satin knickers. 'I'll turn my back while you take off your britches and put these on for me.'

I was a little embarassed at wearing my Aunt's

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