ll, the merchant answered humbly that
he had, thanks to his host's kindness. Then the Beast warned him to
remember their agreement, and to prepare his daughter exactly for what
she had to expect.

"Do not get up to-morrow," he added, "until you see the sun and hear
a golden bell ring. Then you will find your breakfast waiting for you
here, and the horse you are to ride will be ready in the courtyard. He
will also bring you back again when you come with your daughter a month
hence. Farewell. Take a rose to Beauty, and remember your promise!"

The merchant was only too glad when the Beast went away, and though he
could not sleep for sadness, he lay down until the sun rose. Then, after
a hasty breakfast, he went to gather Beauty's rose, and mounted his
horse, which carried him off so swiftly that in an instant he had lost
sight of the palace, and he was still wrapped in gloomy thoughts when it
stopped before the door of the cottage.

His sons and daughters, who had been very uneasy at his long absence,
rushed to meet him, eager to know the result of his journey, which,
seeing him mounted upon a splendid horse and wrapped in a rich mantle,
they supposed to be favorable. He hid the truth from them at first, only
saying sadly to Beauty as he gave her the rose:

"Here is what you asked me to bring you; you little know what it has
cost."

But this excited their curiosity so greatly that presently he told
them his adventures from beginning to end, and then they were all very
unhappy. The girls lamented loudly over their lost hopes, and the sons
declared that their father should not return to this terrible castle,
and began to make plans for killing the Beast if it should come to fetch
him. But he reminded them that he had promised to go back. Then the
girls were very angry with Beauty, and said it was all her fault, and
that if she had asked for something sensible this would never have
happened, and complained bitterly that they should have to suffer for
her folly.

Poor Beauty, much distressed, said to them:

"I have, indeed, caused this misfortune, but I assure you I did it
innocently. Who could have guessed that to ask for a rose in the middle
of summer would cause so much misery? But as I did the mischief it is
only just that I should suffer for it. I will therefore go back with my
father to keep his promise."

At first nobody would hear of this arrangement, and her father and
brothers, who loved her dearly, declar