More than that, he told me that on being received the child was immediately re-registered and given a new name, in order that it might be cut off from the sin of its parents and the contamination of their shame.
It would be impossible for me to describe the feelings with which I listened to the secretary while he said all this, with the cast-metal face of a man who was utterly unconscious of the enormity of the crime he was describing.
"Before a committee of gentlemen?" I asked.
"That is so."
"Who are to ask her all those questions?"
"Yes."
"And then they are to change her baby's name?"
"Yes."
"Is she told what the new name is to be?"
"No, but she is given a piece of parchment containing a number which corresponds with the name in our books."