THE early days of his residence at the
Home of the Sisters of Misery, in
Winkle Street, was the Eden of Ginx's
Baby's existence. Themselves innocent of a
mother's experiences, the sisters were free to
give play to their affections in a novel
direction, and to assume a sort of spiritual
maternity that was lucky for the changeling.
He was nestled in kind serge-covered arms:
kisses rained upon him from chaste lips. A
slight scandal thrilled the convent upon the
discovery of his sex, which had of course been
a pure matter of conjecture to Sister Pudicitia
when she rescued him; but enthusiasm
can overcome anything. The awkward questions
foreshadowed in the discovery were left
to be considered when their growing importance
should demand upon them the judgment
of the archbishop. Visions of an unusual
sanctity to be fostered in the pure regions of
the convent, and to be sent on a mission into
the world to attest the power of their spiritual
discipline, began to haunt the brains of the
sequestered nuns. Might not this infant be
an embryo saint, destined for a great work in
the heretical wilderness out of which he had
come? How little healthy food the brains
must have had wherein these insane dreams
were excited by our innocent baby! Hardly
did the sacred spinsters forecast what was in
store for them when he should be teething.
But Ginx's Baby was in a religious
atmosphere, and that is always surcharged with
electricity. His lot must have been above
that of any other human being if he could
long have remained in such a climate
unvisited by thunder. The mother had been
permitted to attend at the Home with the
same regularity as the milkman, to discharge
her maternal duties. Then with the rise of
the visionary projects just mentioned the
gravest doubts began to agitate the fertile
and casuistic mind of the Lady Superior.
The holier her ideal St. Ginx of the future, the
more to be deplored was any heretical taint in
the present. Holy mother! Was it not perhaps
eminently perilous to his spiritual purity
that an unbeliever like Mrs. Ginx should bring
unconsecrated milk into the convent to be
administered to this suckling of the Church!
In her uneasiness she appealed to Father
Certificatus, the conventual confessor. He
gave his opinion in the following letter:—
