Tarzan laughed and called to her to stop.
“The only clothing on the place that will fit him,” he said, “is mine—if it isn’t too small for him—your little boy has grown, Jane.”
She laughed, too; she felt like laughing at everything, or at nothing. The world was all love and happiness and joy once more—the world that had been shrouded in the gloom of her great sorrow for so many years. So great was her joy that for the moment she forgot the sad message that awaited Meriem. She called to Tarzan after he had ridden away to prepare her for it, but he did not hear and rode on without knowing himself what the event was to which his wife referred.
And so, an hour later, Korak, The Killer, rode home to his mother—the mother whose image had never faded in his boyish heart—and found in her arms and her eyes the love and forgiveness that he plead for.
And then the mother turned toward Meriem, an expression of pitying sorrow erasing the happiness from her eyes.
“My little girl,” she said, “in the midst of our happiness a great sorrow awaits you—Mr. Baynes did not survive his wound.”
The expression of sorrow in Meriem’s eyes expressed only what she sincerely felt; but it was not the sorrow of a woman bereft of her best beloved.
“I am sorry,” she said, quite simply. “He would have done me a great wrong; but he amply atoned before he died. Once I thought that I loved him. At first it was only fascination for a type that was new to me—then it was respect for a brave man who had the moral courage to admit a sin and the physical courage to face death to right the wrong he had committed. But it was not love. I did not know what love was until I knew that Korak lived,” and she turned toward The Killer with a smile.
Lady Greystoke looked quickly up into the eyes of her son—the son who one day would be Lord Greystoke. No thought of the difference in the stations of the girl and her boy entered her mind. To her Meriem was fit for a king. She only wanted to know that Jack loved the little Arab waif. The look in his eyes answered the question in her heart, and she threw her arms about them both and kissed them each a dozen times.
“Now,” she cried, “I shall really have a daughter!”