"
I entreated her with all kindliness and she abode with me a whole
year, during which our thoughts and fancies were always full of our
other sister. Shortly after she too came home in yet fouler and
sorrier plight than that of my eldest sister, and I dealt by her still
more honorably than I had done by the first, and each of them had a
share of my substance. After a time they said to me, "O our sister, we
desire to marry again, for indeed we have not patience to drag on
our days without husbands and to lead the lives of widows
bewitched," and I replied: "O eyes of me! Ye have hitherto seen scanty
weal in wedlock, for nowadays good men and true are become rareties
and curiosities, nor do I deem your projects advisable, as ye have
already made trial of matrimony and have failed." But they would not
accept my advice, and married without my consent. Nevertheless I
gave them outfit and dowries out of my money, and they fared forth
with their mates.
In a mighty little time their husbands played them false and, taking
whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and left them in the
lurch. Thereupon they came to me ashamed and in abject case and made
their excuses to me, saying: "Pardon our fault and be not wroth with
us, for although thou art younger in years yet art thou older in
wit.
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