nd
Beauty answered that everything was so beautiful that she would be very
hard to please if she could not be happy. And after about an hour's talk
Beauty began to think that the Beast was not nearly so terrible as she
had supposed at first. Then he got up to leave her, and said in his
gruff voice:

"Do you love me, Beauty? Will you marry me?"

"Oh! what shall I say?" cried Beauty, for she was afraid to make the
Beast angry by refusing.

"Say 'yes' or 'no' without fear," he replied.

"Oh! no, Beast," said Beauty hastily.

"Since you will not, good-night, Beauty," he said.

And she answered, "Good-night, Beast," very glad to find that her
refusal had not provoked him. And after he was gone she was very soon in
bed and asleep, and dreaming of her unknown Prince. She thought he came
and said to her:

"Ah, Beauty! why are you so unkind to me? I fear I am fated to be
unhappy for many a long day still."

And then her dreams changed, but the charming Prince figured in
them all; and when morning came her first thought was to look at the
portrait, and see if it was really like him, and she found that it
certainly was.

This morning she decided to amuse herself in the garden, for the sun
shone, and all the fountains were playing; but she was astonished to
find that every place was familiar to her, and presently she came to the
brook where the myrtle trees were growing where she had first met the
Prince in her dream, and that made her think more than ever that he must
be kept a prisoner by the Beast. When she was tired she went back to
the palace, and found a new room full of materials for every kind of
work--ribbons to make into bows, and silks to work into flowers. Then
there was an aviary full of rare birds, which were so tame that they
flew to Beauty as soon as they saw her, and perched upon her shoulders
and her head.

"Pretty little creatures," she said, "how I wish that your cage was
nearer to my room, that I might often hear you sing!"

So saying she opened a door, and found, to her delight, that it led into
her own room, though she had thought it was quite the other side of the
palace.

There were more birds in a room farther on, parrots and cockatoos that
could talk, and they greeted Beauty by name; indeed, she found them so
entertaining that she took one or two back to her room, and they talked
to her while she was at supper; after which the Beast paid her his usual
visit, and asked her the same questio