Page:A child of the Orient (IA childoforient00vakarich).pdf/95

 This was the beginning of my friendship with Nashan. Thenceforth she dressed in "sheeting," and was educated in a scrupulously European manner. Masters were engaged to teach her French and music. The hanoum accepted every bit of advice my mother gave her, save one: she would not consent to a resident foreign governess.

"No," she said, in her humble yet determined way, "I will not give up my child entirely to a foreign woman. Her character belongs to me, and by me alone it shall be moulded."

Naturally I saw a great deal of Nashan, and we came to love each other dearly. She had brought from Anatolia, along with her adorable little face, something of the character of her untamed mountains. As we grew from year to year, we used, child-like, to talk of many things we little understood; and once she said to me: "I am sure of the existence of Allah; for at times he manifests himself to me so quickly that I believe he lives within me."

At such moments as these I believe the real Nashan was uppermost. Usually, I am sorry to say, she more and more lost her native simplicity, with her acquirement of European culture, and more openly despised the customs of her own country.

Her early velvet and satin gowns were given us to play with; and many a rainy day we spent in