The porter, however, stood looking at the ladies, and admiring their beauty and their agreeable dispositions; for he had never seen any more handsome; and when he observed that they had not a man among them, and gazed upon the wine, and fruits, and sweet-scented flowers, which were there, he was full of astonishment, and hesitated to go out; upon which one of the ladies said to him, Why dost thou not go? dost thou deem thy hire too little? Then turning to one of her sisters, she said to her, Give him another piece of gold.--By Allah, O my mistress, exclaimed the porter, my hire is but two half-dirhems,[III_17] and I thought not what ye have given me too little; but my heart and mind were occupied with reflections upon you and your state, ye being alone, with no man among you, not one to amuse you with his company; for ye know that the menáreh[III_18] standeth not firmly but on four walls: now ye have not a fourth, and the pleasure of women is not complete without men: ye are three only, and have need of a fourth, who should be a man, a person of sense, discreet, acute, and a concealer of secrets. We are maidens, they replied; and fear to impart our secret to him who will not keep it; for we have read, in a certain history, this verse:-- Guard thy secret from another: intrust it not: for he who intrusteth a secret hath lost it. [Illustration] --By your existence, said the porter, I am a man of sense, and trustworthy: I have read various books, and perused histories: I make known what is fair, and conceal what is foul, and act in accordance with the saying of the poet:-- None keepeth a secret but a faithful person: with the best of mankind it remaineth concealed. A secret is with me as in a house with a lock, whose key is lost, and whose door is sealed.[III_19] When the ladies heard the verses which he quoted, and the words with which he addressed them, they said to him, Thou knowest that we have expended here a considerable sum of money: hast thou then wherewith to requite us? We will not suffer thee to remain with us unless thou contribute a sum of money; for thou desirest to sit with us, and to be our cup-companion, and to gaze upon our beautiful faces.--If friendship is without money, said the mistress of the house, it is not equivalent to the weight of a grain:--and the portress added, If thou hast nothing, depart with nothing:--but the cateress said, O sister, let us suffer him; for, verily, he hath not been deficient in his services for us this day: another had not been so patient with us: whatever, therefore, falls to his share of the expense, I will defray for him.--At this the porter rejoiced, and exclaimed, By Allah, I obtained my first and only pay this day from none but thee:--and the other ladies said to him, Sit down: thou art welcome.