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you know, that a Company of Women without Men, is as melancholy a thing, as a Company of Men without Women: To this he added ſeveral very pleaſant things to prove what he ſaid, and did not forget the Bagdad Proverb, That one is never well at Table, except there be four in Company; and ſo concluded, that ſince there were but Three they had need of a Fourth.
The Ladies fella laughing at the Porter’s Diſcourſe; after which Zobeide ſays to him very gravely, Friend, you are a little too bold, and tho’ you don’t deſerve that I ſhould enter into Particulars with you, yet I am willing to tell you that we are three Siſters, who do our Buſineſs ſo ſecretly, that no body knows any thing of it. We have too great Reaſon to be cautious of acquainting indiſcreet Perſons with them and a good Author that we have read, ſays, Keep your Secret, and don’t reveal it to any body. He that reveals it, is no longer Maſter of it. If your own Breaſt can’t keep your Secret, how do you think that another Perſon will keep it.
My Ladies, replies the Porter, by your very Air, I judg’d at firſt that you were Perſons of extraordinary Merit, and I conceive that I am not miſtaken; tho’ Fortune has not given me Wealth enough to raiſe me above my mean Profeſſion, yet I have not ſail’d to cultivate my Mind as much as I could, by reading Books of Science and Hiſtory; and allow me, it you pleaſe, to tell you, that I have alſo read in another Author, a Maxim which I have always happily practis’d: We dow’t conceal our Secret, 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 ſruple to diſcover them to prudent Perſons, becauſe we know they can keep them. A Secret with me is as ſureas if it were in a Cloſet, whoſe Key is loſt and the Door ſeal’d up.
Zobeide perceiv’d that the Porter did not want Senſe, but conceiving that he had a mind to have a ſhare in their Treat, ſhe replies to him, ſmiling, you know that we are about to have a Treat, and you know alſo that we have been at conſiderable Expence, and it is not juſt that you ſhould have a ſhare of it, without contributing towards it. The beautitul Safie ſeconded. her Silter, and ſays to thePor-
