Dear Editor,

It may perhaps be some consolation to James – remembering his own days of 'ruffled repentance' when forced to wear his stepsister’s short frocks and frilly knickers – to know that here in London there is at least one young man of 18 who is still regularly made to submit to a similarly humiliating ordeal. Indeed, my delightfully dressed and very much ashamed looking 'petticoat penitent' is standing in front of me as I write this.

No doubt some readers will be surprised to find him dressed in such extremely 'little girl' fashion, but there are good reasons for this. 'Petticoat penitence' is designed to humiliate him and make him feel ashamed, and I find from experience that this is best achieved by forcing him to wear very childish clothes, with lace-frilled knickers and petticoats well displayed like a little girl’s, under his tiny, baby-style frock.

Moreover, he has the added bitter humiliation of knowing that these clothes are an exact copy of those at present being worn by the little girl next door, Nancy – aged four!! For it is Nancy’s mother, an attractive young widow and an expert needle woman, who made both outfits! She has always been very interested in my system of 'petticoat penitence' and soon after Nancy was born she herself suggested that it would be an amusing idea to 'bring them up together'. And so it has proved.

The boy, of course, hates his clothes, and there are many tearful protests when he knows he is to be put into them. But he knows that my orders must be obeyed, and that he will stay petticoated and penitent until I release him.
Yours truly,

'A Modern Mother'