nor once did she let
Meriem guess that it was not all play. Nor was this difficult, since
the girl was avid to learn. Then there were pretty dresses to be made
to take the place of the single leopard skin and in this she found the
child as responsive and enthusiastic as any civilized miss of her
acquaintance.

A month passed before the head man returned--a month that had
transformed the savage, half-naked little tarmangani into a daintily
frocked girl of at least outward civilization. Meriem had progressed
rapidly with the intricacies of the English language, for Bwana and My
Dear had persistently refused to speak Arabic from the time they had
decided that Meriem must learn English, which had been a day or two
after her introduction into their home.

The report of the head man plunged Meriem into a period of despondency,
for he had found the village of Kovudoo deserted nor, search as he
would, could he discover a single native anywhere in the vicinity. For
some time he had camped near the village, spending the days in a
systematic search of the environs for traces of Meriem's Korak; but in
this quest, too, had he failed. He had seen neither apes nor ape-man.
Meriem at first insisted upon setting forth herself in search of Korak,
but Bwana prevailed upon her to wait. He would go himself, he assured
her, as soon as he could find the time, and at last Meriem consented to
abide by his wishes; but it was months before she ceased to mourn
almost hourly for her Korak.

My Dear grieved with the grieving girl and did her best to comfort and
cheer her. She told her that if Korak lived he would find her; but all
the time she believed that Korak had never existed beyond the child's
dreams. She planned amusements to distract Meriem's attention from her
sorrow, and she instituted a well-designed campaign to impress upon the
child the desirability of civilized life and customs. Nor was this
difficult, as she was soon to learn, for it rapidly became evident that
beneath the uncouth savagery of the girl was a bed rock of innate
refinement--a nicety of taste and predilection that quite equaled that
of her instructor.

My Dear was delighted. She was lonely and childless, and so she
lavished upon this little stranger all the mother love that would have
gone to her own had she had one. The result was that by the end of the
first year none might have guessed that Meriem ever had existed beyond
the lap of culture and luxury.