Thursday morning Aunt Jane came into my bedroom soon after I was awake.

'Steve,' she announced, sitting on the end of my bed, 'I so much enjoyed Stephanie's visit the other evening I would be delighted if she would visit again. If you would please come into my room the minute you have taken your bath I would certainly appreciate it.'

Then she left the room. I lay back on the bed for a few minutes. Aunt Jane had made it a demand rather than a request ans I could not see how I might refuse. Besides I wasn't even sure that I wanted to refuse. So in a state of mild excitement, I climbed from the bed and ran my bath and soaked in it for a few minutes and then dried myself off, put on dressing gown and went off to Aunt Jane's room. She was already dressed and waiting for me with a vari- ety of her clothes spread out over the bed. She gave me a pair of deliciously soft silk knickers to put on to cover myself up following which I removed my dressing gown and in or- der put on the lovely sheer silk stockings, garters, the satin vest and voluminous petti- coats. There followed the favorite red high- heeled shoes and finally a brillant wine-colored velvet frock. Once I was dressed in these items, she made up my face again and added the long wig. In the mirror Stephanie had returned and I thought she looked quite lovely.

Mrs. Kinrose served breakfast for us, showing great delight in the reappearance of Stephanie. After breakfast Aunt Jane spent some time showing me how to do needlepoint, a craft I found absorbing as my drawing. At ten-thirty, to my shock and horror, the doorbell rang and a dozen of Aunt Jane's lady friends began to file into the drawing room. I had forgotten that this was a Thursday ritual of my Aunt's and it was obvious to me that she had arranged it deliberately so that the ladies could meet me. Since it was too late to escape I had no choice but to brazen it out. Aunt Jane introduced me to each in turn and all expressed pleasure in meeting the "niece" Aunt Jane had written about. They were all very nice and it was ap- parent to me that none of them knew that I was really a young man and so, with nothing to I could behave perfectly normal cover up, and see if I could get away with it. To my great delight I found that I was successful. Under the circumstances and with so little training I

· 38 -

thought that I behaved in a remarkably feminine fashion, being genuinely interested in all of the points of discussion and was happy to show them my drawings and my recent attempts at needlepoint.

When they had all gone, Aunt Jane returned to the living room.

"Stephanie, my dear," she said, smiling broad- ly," you were absolutely charming. You are such a natural girl I think you must have always been meant to be one and I think that we should keep you as a girl for the duration of your stay. What do you say?"

"Well, Aunt Jane," I stammered, just a little flustered by it all, "if you say so. I... really don't know."

"But sweet," she persisted, being a girl?"

"don't you enjoy

"Oh yes. I think so, Aunt Jane," I answered, "but I'm not sure that it's right."

"My dear girl," Aunt Jane said, "if it looks right and it feels right and you enjoy it, then, of course, its right. Besides, I like you as a girl, Mrs Kinrose likes you as a girl and my friends all love you as a girl. Now it's mid-afternoon. I'm going to take my afternoon nap and you should do likewise and while you are about it, have a think about what we've just discus- sed." She turned to leave the room but turned back at the door. "And by the way, when you take a nap, take off your dress and put it in the wardrobe with the others I've put there. I'll see you in a hour or so and we'll dress you for dinner and afterward we might just take another stroll."

Still a little flabbergasted I stood there for a few minutes after she had left the room and then quietly walked to my room and took off the red velvet dress and hung it in my wardrobe. Sure enough, there were four other dresses hanging there, one a rich, pink satin, another a navy blue silk, a dark green velvet and the black silk dress I had worn previosuly. I took off my petticoats, stockings and shoes and stood in front of the mirror just in my pretty knickers and vest and my long dark hair, red lips, rouged cheeks and dark eyes. There was no doubt that the person in the mirror was a girl. My gently sloping shoulders and