It had cost him the loss of property and reputation; it had cost him the peace of his household and the presence of his little girl, and it did not bring in to him in return even the loan of a few piastres, and he would try it no longer.
Prayer continued to be offered without ceasing for Miriam, thus taken back to an irreligious home; and though the missionaries heard of her return and her father's return to the corrupt Greek Catholic Church, and of the exultation of the mother over the attainment of her wishes, yet they did not cease to hope that God would one day bring her back and make her a lamb of His fold.
An Arab young woman, Melita, trained in the family of Mrs.Whiting in Beirut, was sent to Aleppo about this time to open a girls' school there.

The Greek Catholic priests then thought to establish a similar school of their own sect to prevent their children from attending that of the Protestants.

They secured Miriam as their teacher.

As she went from her home to the school and back again, she used sometimes to run into the missionary's house by stealth, and assure him that her heart was still with him, and her faith unchanged.

The school continued a few weeks, but the priests having failed to pay anything towards its support, her father would let her teach no more.