The ladies fell a laughing at the porter’s discourse, after which Zobeide says to him, very gravely, Friend, you are a little too bold; and though you do not deserve that I should enter into particulars with you, yet I am willing to tell you we are three sisters, who do our business so secretly that nobody knows any thing of it.  We have too great reason to be cautious of acquainting indiscreet persons with it; and a good author that we have read, says, ’Keep your secret, and do not reveal it to any body.’  He that reveals it is no longer master of it.  If your own breast cannot keep your secret, how do you think that another person will keep it?

My ladies, replies the porter, by your very air I judged at first you were persons of extraordinary merit, and I conceive that I am not mistaken; though fortune has not given me wealth enough to raise me above my mean profession, yet I have not failed to cultivate my mind as much as I could by reading books of science and history:  And allow me, if you please, to tell you, that I have also read in another author a maxim which I have always happily practised:  ’We do not conceal our secrets, says he, but from such persons as are known to all the world to want discretion, and would abuse the confidence we put in them; but we make no scruple to discover them to prudent persons, because we know they can keep them.’  A secret with me is as sure as if it were in a closet whose key is lost, and the door sealed up.

Zobeide, perceiving that the porter did not want sense, but conceiving that he had a mind to have a share in their treat, replies to him, smiling, You know that we are about to have a treat, and you know also that we have been at a considerable expense, and it is not just that you should have a share of it without contributing towards it.  The beautiful Safie seconded her sister, and says to the porter, Friend, have you never heard that which is commonly said, “If you bring any thing with you, you shall be welcome; but if you bring nothing, you must get you gone with nothing?”

The porter, notwithstanding his rhetoric, must, in all probability, have retired in confusion, if Amine had not taken his part, and said to Zobeide and Safie, My dear sisters, I conjure you to let him stay with us; I need not tell you that he will divert us, you see well enough that he is capable of that:  I must needs tell you, that unless he had been very willing, as well as nimble, and hardy enough to follow me, I could not have done so much business in so little time; besides, should I repeat to you all the obliging expressions he made to me by the way, you would not he surprised at my protecting him.