And an enchanted wallet ! What sort of a contrivance may that be , I wonder ? No , no , good stranger ! we can tell you nothing of these marvellous things . You have two eyes of your own , and we have but a single one amongst us three . You can find out such wonders better than three blind old creatures , like us . '' Perseus , hearing them talk in this way , began really to think that the Gray Women knew nothing of the matter ; and , as it grieved him to have put them to so much trouble , he was just on the point of restoring their eye and asking pardon for his rudeness in snatching it away . But Quicksilver caught his hand . `` Do n't let them make a fool of you ! '' said he . `` These Three Gray Women are the only persons in the world that can tell you where to find the Nymphs ; and , unless you get that information , you will never succeed in cutting off the head of Medusa with the snaky locks . Keep fast hold of the eye , and all will go well . '' As it turned out , Quicksilver was in the right . There are but few things that people prize so much as they do their eyesight ; and the Gray Women valued their single eye as highly as if it had been half a dozen , which was the number they ought to have had . Finding that there was no other way of recovering it , they at last told Perseus what he wanted to know . No sooner had they done so , than he immediately , and with the utmost respect , clapped the eye into the vacant socket in one of their foreheads , thanked them for their kindness , and bade them farewell . Before the young man was out of hearing , however , they had got into a new dispute , because he happened to have given the eye to Scarecrow , who had already taken her turn of it when their trouble with Perseus commenced . It is greatly to be feared that the Three Gray Women were very much in the habit of disturbing their mutual harmony by bickerings of this sort ; which was the more pity , as they could not conveniently do without one another , and were evidently intended to be inseparable companions . As a general rule , I would advise all people , whether sisters or brothers , old or young , who chance to have but one eye amongst them , to cultivate forbearance , and not all insist upon peeping through it at once . Quicksilver and Perseus , in the mean time , were making the best of their way in quest of the Nymphs .
The old dames had given them such particular directions , that they were not long XXXXX finding them out .
Before amongst as at in into than to unless with