Erm I would have thought that in those days parental authority counted for more than it might do now! If he said "no going out", then the girls should have been obedient. Clearly they weren't so I am thinking that neither of them had much in the way of brains or self control. Surely it woudl not have been that hard for him to ask a woman friend (or even to hire an impoverished lady to be a "companion") to give them the chaperonage he could not give....
At hte very least he could have insisted on them having a maid with them at all times.