Vivie was thought to be fully equal in her knowledge of the
law to her cousin, though not allowed to qualify for the Bar. Case
after case was referred to her with the hope that if she could not
solve it, she might submit it to her cousin's judgment. In this way,
excellent legal advice was forthcoming which drove the Home Office
officials from one quandary to another.
But Vivie in the spring of 1910, looking back on nearly twelve
months of womanly life (save for David's summer of continental
travel) decided that she didn't like being a woman, so far as Woman
was dressed in 1910 and for three or four hundred years previously.
As "David" this had been more or less her costume: an undershirt
(two, in very cold weather), a pair of pants coming down to the
ankle, and well-fitting woollen socks on the feet. A shirt,
sometimes in day-time all of one piece with its turn-over collar; at
worst with a separate collar and a tie passed through it. Braces
that really braced and held up the nether garment of trousers; a
waistcoat buttoning fairly high up (no pneumonia blouse)--two
waistcoats if she liked, or a dandy slip buttoned innocently inside
the single vest to suggest the white lie of a second inner vest.
Over the waistcoat a coat or jacket. On the head a hat which fitted
the head in thirty seconds (allowing for David's shock of hair).
Lace-up or button boots, with perhaps at most six buttons; gloves
with one button; spats--if David wanted to be very dressy--with
three buttons.
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