"Then a woman who is divorced may marry again after four months, which is believed to be soon enough. These widows, I assure you, sir, when they have a good dower, are remarkable for consulting their own judgment as to a second choice; they are not like young giddy girls, who are guided by their parents or the reports of old nurses or match-makers." "But how do they see or hear," said I, "sufficient to direct them in their choice?" "Why," said Jaffier Ali, "they see and hear much more than you imagine. Besides the liberty they enjoy of going abroad, some of the rooms in the merdâneh, or man's apartments, are only divided by a curtain or skreen from the zenâneh, or female apartment; and the ladies can, when they choose, both see and hear through that as much as they desire." "But what is the use of those peeps and chance meetings to your young ladies, if they have not the liberty of choice with regard to their husbands?" "Why, sir," said my friend, "our daughters are usually betrothed when children, and married when very young; the husband is commonly selected from equality of condition and age. All this is settled by the parents, whose regard for their children, it is supposed, will make them take every means to promote their happiness. It must be confessed, however, that worldly motives often lead to youth and age being united; but this, I am told, occurs even in England. You will say an English father cannot force his daughter to marry, but he can no doubt use such means as may oblige her to marry a man for whom she has an aversion, or she may run away from her parents with some person of whom they disapprove. "So you see," said Jaffier, "this liberty of choice which your forward, though inexperienced, young ladies exercise, has bad as well as good effects. Now our daughters never run away; and as they have seldom ever seen their destined husbands, if they have no love for them, neither have they any dislike. The change from the condition of a girl under the strict subjection of her mother to that of a wife at the head of her own part of the household is so agreeable, that they are too happy to adopt it.