with my
father, as he is alone."

"You shall be there to-morrow morning," said the Beast; "but remember
your promise. You need only lay your ring on the table before you go to
bed, when you have a mind to come back. Farewell, Beauty."

Beast sighed as usual, bidding her good-night; and Beauty went to bed
very sad at seeing him so afflicted. When she waked the next morning,
she found herself at her father's, and having rung a little bell that
was by her bed-side, she saw the maid come, who, the moment she saw her,
gave a loud shriek, at which the good man ran upstairs, and thought he
should have died with joy to see his dear daughter again. He held her
fast locked in his arms above a quarter of an hour. As soon as the first
transports were over, Beauty began to think of rising, and was afraid
she had no clothes to put on; but the maid told her that she had just
found, in the next room, a large trunk full of gowns, covered with gold
and diamonds. Beauty thanked good Beast for his kind care, and taking
one of the plainest of them, she intended to make a present of the
others to her sisters. She scarcely had said so, when the trunk
disappeared. Her father told her that Beast insisted on her keeping them
herself, and immediately both gowns and trunk came back again.

Beauty dressed herself; and in the meantime they sent to her sisters,
who hastened thither with their husbands. They were both of them very
unhappy. The eldest had married a gentleman, extremely handsome, indeed,
but so fond of his own person that he neglected his wife. The second had
married a man of wit, but he only made use of it to plague and torment
every one. Beauty's sisters sickened with envy when they saw her dressed
like a Princess, and look more beautiful than ever. They went down into
the garden to vent their spleen, and agreed to persuade her to stay a
week longer with them, which probably might so enrage the Beast as to
make him devour her. After they had taken this resolution, they went up
and behaved so affectionately to their sister that poor Beauty wept for
joy, and, at their request, promised to stay seven nights longer.

In the meantime, Beauty was unhappy. The tenth night she dreamed she was
in the palace garden, and that she saw Beast extended on the grass plot,
who seemed just expiring, and, in a dying voice, reproached her with her
ingratitude. Beauty started out of her sleep, and bursting into tears,
reproached herself for her ingrati