IN the moment of Sister Suspiciosa's triumph,
the enemy was laying his train against her.
The little man made his report to the secretary
of the Protestant Detectoral Association.
This gentleman was well-born and well-bred;
moved to work in this "cause'' by an honest
hatred of superstition, priestcraft, and lies;
now giving all his energies to the ambitious
design of pulling down the strongholds of
Satan. In any other matter he could act
coolly, and with deliberation; in this he
was an enthusiast. He had a keen Roman
nose. He could scent a priest anywhere in
the United Kingdom. He could smell Jesuitry
in the Queen's drawing-room, a cabinet
council or convocation, though he had never
been at either. His eye was beyond a
falcon's; he saw things that were invisible.
It penetrated through all disguises. He
knew a secret emissary of the Pope by the
cock of his hat, or the color of his stockings.
At least, he thought so, and thousands
of persons acted on his estimate of
himself.
"This case,'' said he to the little man,
when he had concluded his report, "though
not in its first incidents so grave as we were
led to expect, is, in another point of view,
very serious. Here is a man, as you have
expressed it, `indifferent' to his child's life—
animal and spiritual. The mother, with a
true Protestant heart, and a fine breast of
milk, is longing to nurture her child, and to
deliver it from the toils of the Papacy. But
the husband, what's his name? . . . . Ginx—
Ginx? a very bad name for a case, by the
way—
Ginx's Case!—this Ginx has given up
his child to the Sisters of Misery. How are
we to get it away again, without his
coöperation? . . . . Well, we must try.''
The solicitor of the Association was
forthwith summoned. When the matter had been
laid before him, he expressed doubts, offered
and withdrew courses of action, and ended by
suggesting that he should take the opinion of
counsel .
"Mr. Stigma, I suppose?'' said he to the
secretary.
"Oh, yes, Sir Adolphus Stigma is one of
our principal supporters, and his son's heart
is thoroughly with us.''
Messrs. Roundhead, Roundhead and Lollard,
drew up a case to be submitted to Mr.
Stigma. I will only transcribe the latter
paragraphs:—
Mr. Ginx being indifferent, and Mrs. Ginx
being ready to assist in regaining the custody of
her child, to be conveyed to a Protestant Home,
