Zobeidè at first thought the porter was waiting to get breath, but observing him remain a long time, she asked him what he waited for, and whether he was sufficiently paid. “Give him something more,” added she, speaking to Aminè, “and let him be satisfied.” --“Madam,” answered the porter, “it is not that which detains me; I am already almost too well paid for my trouble. I know very well that I am guilty of an incivility in staying where I ought not; but I hope you will have the goodness to pardon it, from the astonishment I experience in observing no man among three ladies of such uncommon beauty. A party of ladies without men is as melancholy and stupid as a party of men without ladies.” To this he added some pleasantries in proof of what he advanced. He did not forget to repeat what they say at Bagdad, that there was no comfort at table unless there were four; and he concluded by saying that as they were three, they had the greatest want of a fourth. The ladies laughed heartily at the reasoning of the porter. Zobeidè, however, then addressed him in a serious manner. “You carry your fooleries, my friend, a little too far; but though you do not deserve that I should enter into any explanation with you, I will at once inform you, that we are three sisters, who arrange all our affairs so secretly, that no one knows any thing of them. We have too great reason to fear a discovery to permit us to impart our arrangements; and an established author whom we have read, says, _Keep thy own secret, and tell it to no one; for he who reveals a secret is no longer master of it. If thy own breast cannot contain thy secret, how can the breast of him to whom you intrust it?_” “Ladies,” replied the porter, “from your appearance alone I thought you possessed a singular degree of merit; and I perceive that I am not mistaken. Although fortune has not been so propitious to me, as to bring me up to any profession, superior to the one I follow, yet I have cultivated my mind as much as I was able by reading books of science and history; and permit me, I entreat, to say, that I also have read in another a maxim which I have always happily practised; Conceal your secret, he says, _only from such as are known to be indiscreet, and who will abuse your confidence; but make no difficulty in discovering it to prudent men, because they know how to keep it_. The secret, then, with me is as safe as locked up in a cabinet, the key of which is lost, and the door sealed.”