PART II.

WHAT CHARITY AND THE CHURCHES DID WITH HIM.

I.--The Milk of Human Kindness, Mother's Milk, and the
Milk of the Word.

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