Thus they threw me off. My brothers-in-law were absent
with their wives five years, during which period they spent all the
money they had and, becoming bankrupt, deserted my sisters in
foreign parts amid stranger folk.
After five years my eldest sister returned to me in beggar's gear
with her clothes in rags and tatters and a dirty old mantilla, and
truly she was in the foulest and sorriest plight. At first sight I did
not know my own sister, but presently I recognized her and said, "What
state is this?" "O our sister," she replied, "words cannot undo the
done, and the reed of Destiny hath run through what Allah decreed."
Then I sent her to the bath and dressed her in a suit of mine own, and
boiled for her a bouillon and brought her some good wine, and said
to her: "O my sister, thou art the eldest, who still standest to us in
the stead of father and mother, and as for the inheritance which
came to me as to you twain, Allah hath blessed it and prospered it
to me with increase, and my circumstances are easy, for I have made
much money by spinning and cleaning silk. And I and you will share
my wealth alike.
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