but I must tell you plainly, that I do not think it will ever happen.  I shall always be your friend; so try to let that make you easy.”  “I must needs do so then,” said the beast, “for I know well enough how frightful I am; but I love you better than myself.  Yet I think I am very lucky in your being pleased to stay with me; now promise me, Beauty, that you will never leave me.”  Beauty was quite struck when he said this, for that very day she had seen in her glass that her father had fallen sick of grief for her sake, and was very ill for the want of seeing her again.  “I would promise you, with all my heart,” said she, “never to leave you quite; but I long so much to see my father, that if you do not give me leave to visit him I shall die with grief.”  “I would rather die myself, Beauty,” answered the beast, “than make you fret; I will send you to your father’s cottage, you shall stay there, and your poor beast shall die of sorrow.”  “No,” said Beauty, crying, “I love you too well to be the cause of your death; I promise to return in a week.  You have shown me that my sisters are married, and my brothers are gone for soldiers, so that my father is left all alone.  Let me stay a week with him.”  “You shall find yourself with him to-morrow morning,” replied the beast; “but mind, do not forget your promise.  When you wish to return you have nothing to do but to put your ring on a table when you go to bed.  Good-bye, Beauty!” The beast then sighed as he said these words, and Beauty went to bed very sorry to see him so much grieved.  When she awoke in the morning, she found herself in her father’s cottage.  She rung a bell that was at her bedside, and a servant entered; but as soon as she saw Beauty, the woman gave a loud shriek; upon which the merchant ran up stairs, and when he beheld his daughter he was ready to die of joy.  He ran to the bedside, and kissed her a hundred times.  At last Beauty began to remember that she had brought no clothes with her to put on; but the servant told her she had just found in the next room a large chest full of dresses, trimmed all over with gold, and adorned with pearls and diamonds.

Beauty in her own mind thanked the beast for his kindness, and put on the plainest gown she could find among them all.  She then told the servant to put the rest away with a great deal of care, for she intended to give them to her sisters; but as soon as she had spoken these words the chest was gone out of sight in a moment.  Her father then said, perhaps the beast chose for her to keep them all for herself; and as soon as he had said this, they saw the chest standing again in the same place.  While Beauty was dressing herself, a servant brought word to her that her sisters were come with their husbands to pay her a visit.  They both lived unhappily with the gentlemen they had married.  The husband of the eldest was very handsome; but was so very proud of this, that he thought of nothing else from morning till night, and did not