calling her name softly twelve
times, and then she got up and found her dressing-table set out with
everything she could possibly want; and when her toilet was finished she
found dinner was waiting in the room next to hers. But dinner does not
take very long when you are all by yourself, and very soon she sat down
cosily in the corner of a sofa, and began to think about the charming
Prince she had seen in her dream.

"He said I could make him happy," said Beauty to herself.

"It seems, then, that this horrible Beast keeps him a prisoner. How can I
set him free? I wonder why they both told me not to trust to appearances?
I don't understand it. But, after all, it was only a dream, so why should
I trouble myself about it? I had better go and find something to do to
amuse myself."

So she got up and began to explore some of the many rooms of the palace.

The first she entered was lined with mirrors, and Beauty saw herself
reflected on every side, and thought she had never seen such a charming
room. Then a bracelet which was hanging from a chandelier caught her eye,
and on taking it down she was greatly surprised to find that it held a
portrait of her unknown admirer, just as she had seen him in her dream.
With great delight she slipped the bracelet on her arm, and went on into a
gallery of pictures, where she soon found a portrait of the same handsome
Prince, as large as life, and so well painted that as she studied it he
seemed to smile kindly at her. Tearing herself away from the portrait at
last, she passed through into a room which contained every musical
instrument under the sun, and here she amused herself for a long while in
trying some of them, and singing until she was tired. The next room was a
library, and she saw everything she had ever wanted to read, as well as
everything she had read, and it seemed to her that a whole lifetime would
not be enough even to read the names of the books, there were so many. By
this time it was growing dusk, and wax candles in diamond and ruby
candlesticks were beginning to light themselves in every room.

Beauty found her supper served just at the time she preferred to have it,
but she did not see anyone or hear a sound, and, though her father had
warned her that she would be alone, she began to find it rather dull.

But presently she heard the Beast coming, and wondered tremblingly if he
meant to eat her up now.

However, as he did not seem at all ferocious, and only said g