"
Beauty would almost have agreed to this, so sorry was she for him, but
she had that day seen in her magic glass, which she looked at
constantly, that her father was dying of grief for her sake.
"Alas!" she said, "I long so much to see my father, that if you do not
give me leave to visit him, I shall break my heart."
"I would rather break mine, Beauty," answered the beast; "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 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
rang 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 upstairs, and when he beheld his daughter he ran to her,
and kissed her a hundred times.
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