Scholar Ross said, "Last week the Westchester Young People's Club gave a costume ball. The young ladies were to attend this affair adorned in the authentic fashion of some period in the past, and a prize was to be awarded to the most novel, yet completely authentic costume."
"And," said Gloria with a smile, "I won!"
"Your daughter won because she has a talent for performing the most shocking deeds under a cloak of intellectual achievement."
"Do go on, Scholar Ross. What did Gloria do?"
The scholar smiled wryly. "Style and fashion ceased to be logical when clothing was designed for sly provocation rather than as a protection against a harsh environment," he said. "We live in a mixed-up social world. We encourage communal swimming and sun bathing in the nude—and yet after five o'clock it is considered shocking to display more than the bare face and hands.
"So in order to combine the maximum shock-effect with the cloak of utter authenticity, Miss Hanford researched the styles and fashions until she located a brief period of a few scant months late in the Twentieth Century. Her costume consisted of a many-fold voluminous skirt of semi-transparent material that draped in graceful folds from waist to mid-calf. She was completely nude above the waist! To prove her point, she offered fashion stereos of the period from style magazines."
Gloria chuckled. "I might have researched back to the Old Testament," she said.
Scholar Ross shook his head. "As I say, her shocking behavior could not be criticized. She could justify it according to the rules."
Mr. Hanford shook his head and asked, "Gloria, what did Bertram think of all this?"