He rejoined, “What knoweth the Sultan that ye sit in this place?” and they retorted, “Ye be Darwayshes who enter everywhere:  so when ye go in to him, tell him our tale; haply shall Almighty Allah incline his heart uswards.”  The King asked them, “Be you three ever sitting together in this stead?” and they answered, “Yea, verily:  we never leave one another by night or by day.”  Then the King and the Minister rose up and having presented them with a few silvers took leave and departed.  Now it was midnight when they reached a tenement wherein sat three girls with their mother spinning and eating; and each one appeared fairer than her fellows, and at times they sang and then they laughed and then they talked.  The Sultan said to the Wazir, “There is no help but we enter to these damsels;” whereto the Minister replied “What have we to do with going near them?  Let them be as they are!” The Sultan, however, rejoined, “Needs must we enter,” and the Wazir retorted, “Hearkening and obedience;” and he rapped at the door when one of the sisterhood cried out, “Who knocketh in this gloom of the night?” The Minister answered, “We are two Darwayshes, guests and strangers;” and the girl rejoined, “We are maidens with our mother and we have no men in our house who can admit you; so fare ye to the marriage-feast of the Sultan and become ye his guests.”  The Minister continued, “We are foreigners and we know not the way to the Palace and we dread lest the Chief of Police happen upon us and apprehend us at this time o’ night.  We desire that you afford us lodging till daylight when we will go about our business and you need not expect from us aught save respect and honourable treatment.”  Now when the mother heard this, she pitied them and bade one daughter open the door.  So the damsel threw it open and the Sultan and Wazir entered and salam’d and sat down to converse together; but the King gazed upon the sisters and marvelled at their beauty and their loveliness, and said in his mind, “How cometh it that these maidens dwell by themselves unmated and they in such case?” So quoth he to them, “How is it ye lack husbands, you being so beautiful, and that ye have not a man in the house?” Quoth the youngest, “O Darwaysh, hold thy tongue[FN#132] nor ask us of aught, for our story is wondrous and our adventures marvellous.  But ’ware thy words and shorten thy speech; verily hadst thou been the Sultan and thy companion the Wazir an you heard our history haply ye had taken compassion upon our case.”  Thereupon the King turned to the Minister and said, “Up with us and wend we our ways; but first do thou make sure of the place and affix thy mark upon the door.”  Then the twain rose up and fared forth but the Wazir stood awhile and set a sign upon the entrance and there left his imprint; after which the twain returned to the Palace.  Presently the youngest sister said to her mother, “By Allah, I fear lest the Darwayshes have made their mark upon our door to the end that they may recognise it by day; for haply the twain