Ah! what a fright you have given me! she murmured.
'No,Beast,' answeredBeautygently; 'I do not hate you, and I should be very sorry never to see you again. But I do long to see my own people. Let me go home for two months only, and I promise to come back and stay with you for the rest of my life.'
TheBeasthad fallen flat and lay along the carpet at her feet. His eyes were closed, and for some while his heavy sighs alone told her that he was neither dead nor in a swoon. By and by he lifted his head:—
'I can deny you nothing,' he said sadly. 'But no matter, though it cost me my life.... In the room next to your bedroom you will find four chests: fill them with everything you would like to take with you. Be sure to keep your word; for if you break it and come back to find your poorBeastdead, you will be sorry when it is too late. Come back at the end of two months and you will find me alive; and to come back you will not need chariot or horses. Only say good-bye, that night, to your father, and brothers, and sisters; and, when you are in-bed, turn this ring round on your finger and say firmly: "I wish to go back to my palaceand see myBeastagain." That is all. Good night,Beauty!Sleep soundly, and in good time you shall see your father once more.'
As soon as he was goneBeautyset to work to fill the four boxes with all the riches and finery that heart could desire. She filled them to the brim; and then, tired out, she went to bed. But for a long while she could not close her eyes for excitement. It was not until close upon sunrise that sleep visited her and, with it, another dream. In this dream she saw her beloved Unknown stretched at full length on a bank of turf. His face was hidden, and she could hear that he was sobbing. But when, touched by the sight of his grief, she drew near to console him, he lifted his face to her and said:—
'CruelBeauty, how can you ask what ails me? when you are leaving me, and your going is my death warrant!'
'But, dearestPrince,' saidBeauty, 'I am only going to tell my father and brothers and sisters that I am well and happy. In a short while I shall be back, never to leave you again.... But, for that matter,' she went on as a new thoughtstruck her, 'why should we be separated at all? I will put off my going for another day, and to-morrow I will beg theBeastto let you go with me. I am sure he will not refuse.'
'I can only go with you, if you promise me never to come back,' replied thePrince. 'And, after all, when you have once delivered me, why should we ever come back? TheBeastwill be hurt in his feelings and very angry no doubt; but by that time we shall be beyond his power.'
'You forget,'Beautyreminded him sharply, 'that I have promised him to return, and that, moreover, he says he will die of grief if I break my word.'
'And what if he does?' demanded her lover. 'Is not your happiness worth more than the life of a monster? Of what use is he in the world except to frighten folks out of their wits?'
'Ah, you do not understand!' criedBeauty. 'This monster—as you call him—is only a monster in his face, and through no fault of his. He has the kindest heart in the world, and how could I be so ungrateful after all he has done for me!'
'I believe,' said her lover bitterly, 'that if yousaw us fighting, of the two you would rather let me perish than thisBeastof yours.'
Beautytold him that he was cruel and unjust, and begged him to talk of something else. She set the example, too. Seeing that he was piqued and proud, she addressed a long speech to him, full of endearments, to win him back to a good humour, and was growing astonished at her own eloquence when, in the middle of it, she awoke.
Her last words seemed to mingle with the sound of familiar voices. She sprang out of bed and drew her curtain.... It was very strange! As the sunlight poured in she saw that she was in a room much more poorly furnished than that in which she had fallen asleep. She dressed in haste, and opening the door, found that the next room too was like no apartment in theBeast'spalace. But at her feet stood the four chests she had packed overnight; and, while she marvelled, again she heard a voice talking, and ran towards it. For it was her father's.
She rushed out and fell into his arms. He, poor man, stared at her as though she had sprung from another world, and the others were no lessastonished. Her brothers embraced her with transports of joy, while her sisters—who, to tell the truth, had not overcome their jealousy—pretended to be quite as glad. They plied her with a thousand questions, which she answered very good-naturedly, putting aside her own impatience; for she too had a number of questions to ask. To begin with, this house of theirs was not the cottage in which she had left them, but a fine new one her father had been able to buy with theBeast'spresents. If not wealthy, he was in easy circumstances; with the bettering of their fortunes his sisters had found other wooers and were soon to be married; and altogetherBeautyhad the satisfaction of knowing that she had at least brought prosperity back to her family. 'As for you, my dearest child,' said the merchant, 'when your sisters are married, you shall keep house for your brothers and me, and so my old age will be happy.'
This was all very well, butBeautyhad to tell her father that she must leave him again in two months' time; whereat he broke out into lamentations. 'Dear father,' said the sensible girl, 'it is good of you to weep; but it is useless, and I wouldrather have your advice, which is sure to be useful.' Thereupon she told him all the story. Her father considered for a while, and then said:—
'I can only give you the same counsel that, by your own admission, you are always receiving from these phantoms of your dreams. "Do not trust to appearance," they say, and "Be guided by your heart's gratitude"; and they tell you this over and over again. What can it mean, child, but one thing? TheBeast, you say, is frightful. His appearance is certainly against him. Then judge him rather by the gratitude which you certainly owe him. It is plain that he has a good heart—"handsome is as handsome does"—it is clear to me that these phantoms would have you say "Yes" to theBeast, and I too advise you to consent.'
Beautysaw the wisdom of this and knew very well that her father was counselling her for the best. Nevertheless it needed something more than this to reconcile her with marrying a monster, and she felt relieved at the thought that for two whole months she could put off deciding. Strange to say, as the days went by and the time of her departure drew nearer, she found herself lookingforward to it rather than repining. For one thing distressed her and spoilt all her happiness—she never dreamed at all now.
The days went by, and as they drew to an end her brothers and even her father (forgetting his former good counsel) employed all persuasions to hinder her departure. But her mind was made up; and when the two months were passed she was resolute on everything but the hour of her parting. Every morning, when she got up, she meant to say good-bye, but somehow another night came and the farewells were still unspoken.
She reproached herself (as well she might), and was still thus cruelly torn between two minds, when one night a dream visited her—the first for two months and more.
She dreamed that she was back at theBeast'spalace, and wandering by a lonely path in the gardens which ended in a tangle of brushwood overhanging a cave. As she drew nearer she heard a terrible groaning, and running in haste she found theBeaststretched there on the point of death. Still in her dream she was bending over him when the stately lady stepped forth fromthe bushes and addressed her in a tone of grave reproach:—
'I doubt,Beauty, if even now you have come in time. Cruel, cruel of you to delay! when your delay has brought him so near to death!'
Terrified by this dreamBeautyawoke in her bed with a start. 'I have done wickedly!' she cried. 'Am I too late? Oh, indeed I hope not!' She turned the ring upon her finger and said aloud in a firm voice: 'I wish to go back to my palace and see my Beast again!'
With that she at once fell asleep, and only woke up to hear the clock chiming, 'Beauty, Beauty,' twelve times on the musical note she so well remembered. She was back, then, at the palace. Yes, and—oh, joy!—her faithful apes and parrots were gathered around the bed, wishing her good morning!
But none of them could tell her any news of theBeast. They were here to serve her, and all their thoughts ended with their duty. Their good master—the lord of this splendid palace—what was he to them? At any rate nothing was to be learnt from them, andBeautywas no sooner dressed thanshe broke away impatiently, wandering through the house and the gardens to fill up the time until evening should bring his accustomed visit. But it was hard work filling up the time. She went into the great hall and resolutely opened the windows one by one. The shows were there as before; but opera and comedy, fête and pageant, held no meaning for her: the players were listless, the music was null, the processions passed before her eyes but had lost their power to amuse.
Supper-time came at length; but when after supper the minutes passed and passed and still noBeastappeared, then indeedBeautywas frightened. For a long while she waited, listened, told herself this and that, and finally in a terror rushed down into the gardens to seek for him. The alleys were dark; the bushes daunted her with their black shadows; but still up and down ran poorBeauty, calling to theBeast, and calling in vain.
She was drenched with the dew, utterly lost and weary, when, after three hours, pausing for a moment's rest, she saw before her the same solitary path she had seen in her dream: and there in the moonlight she almost stumbled over theBeast.
He lay there, stretched at full length and asleep—or so she thought. So glad was she to have found him that she knelt and stroked his head, calling him by name over and over. But his flesh was cold beneath her hand, nor did he move or open his eyes.
'Ah, he is dead!' she cried, aghast.
But she put a hand over his heart, and to her inexpressible joy she felt that it was still beating. Hastily she ran to a fountain near by, and dipping water into her palms from its basin she ran and sprinkled it on his face, coaxing him with tender words as his eyes opened, and slowly—very slowly—he came to himself.
'Ah! what a fright you have given me!' she murmured. 'DearBeast, I never knew how I loved you until I feared that you were dead—yes, dead, and through my fault! But I believe, if you had died, I should have died too.'
'Beauty,' said theBeastfaintly, 'you are very good if indeed you can love such an ugly brute as I am. It is true that I was dying for you, and should have died if you had not come. I thought you had forsaken me. But are you sure?'
'Sure of what?' askedBeauty.
'That you love me?'
'Let us go back to supper,' saidBeauty, raising his head.
'Yes, let us go back to supper, 'agreed theBeast, lifting himself heavily on her arm. He still leaned on her, as they walked back to the palace together. But the supper—which they found laid for two—seemed to revive him, and in his old stupid way he asked her about the time she had spent at home, and if her father and brothers and sisters had been glad to see her.
Beauty, though weary enough after her search through the park and gardens, brisked herself up to tell of all that had happened to her in her absence. TheBeastsat nodding his head and listening in his old dull way—which somehow seemed to her the most comfortable way in the world. At length he rose to go. But at the doorway he put the old blunt question.
'Beauty, will you marry me?'
'Yes, dearBeast,' saidBeauty; and as she said it a blaze of light filled the room. A salvo of artillery sounded, a moment later, from the park.Bang, bang! fireworks shot across the windows of the palace; sky rockets and Roman candles exploded and a magnificent set-piece wrote across the darkness in letters of fire—'long live beauty and the beast!'
Beautyturned to ask what all these rejoicings might mean; and, with that, she gave a cry. TheBeasthad vanished, and in his place stood the belovedPrinceof her dreams! He smiled and stretched out his hands to her. Scarcely knowing what she did, she was stretching hers, to take them, when above the banging of fireworks in the avenues there sounded a rolling of wheels. It drew to the porch, and presently there entered the stately lady she had seen in her dreams. It was the very same; and, all astounded as she was,Beautydid reverence to her.
But the stately lady was as eager to do reverence toBeauty. 'Best and dearest,' said she, 'my son is going to love you always; as how should he not, seeing that by your courage you have rescued him from the enchantment under which he has lain so long, and have restored him to his natural form? But suffer also his mother, a Queen, to bless you!'
Beautyturned again to her lover and saw thathe, who had been aBeast, was indeed thePrinceof her dreams and handsomer than the day. So they were married and lived happy ever after; nay, so happy were they that all over the world folks told one another and set down in writing this wonderful history ofBeauty and the Beast.
MORALMaidens, from this tale ofBeautyLearn, and in your memory write—Daily leads a Path of DutyThrough the Garden of Delight;Where the loveliest roses wearDaunting thorns, for you to dare.ANOTHERMany shy, unhappy creaturesFrom the covert watch your mirth:'Foul are we,' they mourn; 'our featuresBlot the sun, deform the earth.'Pity, love them, speak them fair;Half their woe ye may repair.
MORAL
Maidens, from this tale ofBeautyLearn, and in your memory write—Daily leads a Path of DutyThrough the Garden of Delight;Where the loveliest roses wearDaunting thorns, for you to dare.
ANOTHER
Many shy, unhappy creaturesFrom the covert watch your mirth:'Foul are we,' they mourn; 'our featuresBlot the sun, deform the earth.'Pity, love them, speak them fair;Half their woe ye may repair.