in no hurry to
awake, but presently the clock roused her by calling her name softly
twelve times, and then she got up and found her dressing-table set out
with everything she could possibly want; and when her toilet was
finished she found dinner was waiting in the room next to hers. But
dinner does not take very long when you are all by yourself, and very
soon she sat down cozily in the corner of a sofa and began to think
about the charming prince she had seen in her dream.

"He said I could make him happy," said Beauty to herself. "It seems,
then, that this horrible beast keeps him a prisoner. How can I set him
free? I wonder why they both told me not to trust to appearances. I
don't understand it. But after all it is only a dream, so why should I
trouble myself about it? I had better go and find something to do to
amuse myself."

So she got up and began to explore some of the many rooms of the palace.

The first she entered was lined with mirrors, and Beauty saw herself
reflected on every side, and thought she had never seen such a charming
room. Then a bracelet which was hanging from a chandelier caught her
eye, and on taking it down she was greatly surprised to find that it
held a portrait of her unknown admirer, just as she had seen him in her
dream. With great delight she slipped the bracelet on her arm and went
on into a gallery of pictures, where she soon found a portrait of the
same handsome prince, as large as life and so well painted that as she
studied it he seemed to smile kindly at her.

Tearing herself away from the portrait at last, she passed through into
a room which contained every musical instrument under the sun, and here
she amused herself for a long while in trying some of them and singing
until she was tired. The next room was a library, and she saw everything
she had ever wanted to read, as well as everything she had read, and it
seemed to her that a whole lifetime would not be enough even to read the
names of the books, there were so many. By this time it was growing
dusk, and wax candles in diamond and ruby candlesticks were beginning to
light themselves in every room.

Beauty found her supper served just at the time she preferred to have
it, but she did not see anyone or hear a sound, and though her father
had warned her that she would be alone, she began to find it rather
dull.

But presently she heard the beast coming, and wondered tremblingly if he
meant to eat her up now.

Howev