In the border of a miniature, the arms of the first owner, apparently a member of the Van Varssenaere family of Bruges (1, sable three daggers proper in bend; 2, sable three sheaves of wheat or; 3, argent vairy countervairy gules; 4, azure six ears of wheat or, 3, 2, 1).

The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.

[…] orphanages sent tens of thousands of children to start new lives in the overseas dominions, particularly Australia and Canada. Some 100,000 children were sent to Canada alone, and about a quarter of all Canadians have a home child on their family tree.

On a rather ordinary Thursday morning I settled into my office in O'Connor House — pushing aside towering book stacks and reaching for my bujo (bullet journal) — when I heard a shrieking yowl down the hall.