of grief, because I love you so
dearly."

"How shall I reach home?" said Beauty; "I do not know the way."

Then the Beast gave her a ring, and told her to put it on her finger
when she went to bed, turn the ruby towards the palm of her hand, and
then she would wake up in her father's cottage. When she wanted to
come back, she was to do the same thing.

So in the morning, when she awoke, she found herself at her father's
house, and the old man was beside himself with joy to see her safe and
sound.

But her sisters did not welcome her very kindly, and when they heard
how kind the Beast was to her, they envied her her good luck in living
in a beautiful palace, whilst they had to be content with a cottage.

"I wish we had gone," said Marigold. "Beauty always gets the best of
everything."

"Tell us all about your grand palace," said Dressalinda, "and what you
do, and how you spend your time."

So Beauty, thinking it would amuse them to hear, told them, and their
envy increased day by day. At last Dressalinda said to Marigold:

"She has promised to return in a week. If we could only make her
forget the day, the Beast might be angry and kill her, and then there
would be a chance for us."

So on the day before she ought to have gone back, they put, some
poppy juice in a cup of wine which they gave her, and this made her
so sleepy that she slept for two whole days and nights. At the end of
that time her sleep grew troubled, and she dreamed that She saw the
Beast lying dead among the roses in the beautiful gardens of his
palace; and from this dream she awoke crying bitterly.

Although she did not know that a week and two days had gone by since
she left the Beast, yet after that dream she at once turned the ruby
towards her palm, and the next morning there she was, sure enough, in
her bed in the Beast's palace.

She did not know where his rooms in the palace were, but she felt she
could not wait till supper-time before seeing him, so she ran hither
and thither, calling his name. But the palace was empty, and no one
answered her when she called.

Then she ran through the gardens, calling his name again and again,
but still there was silence.

"Oh! what shall I do if I cannot find him?" she said. "I shall never
be happy again."

Then she remembered her dream, and ran to the rose garden, and there,
sure enough, beside the basin of the big fountain, lay the poor Beast
without any sign of life in him.

Beauty flung