Beauty and the Beast (Part Five)
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"Let us," said the elder, "try to keep her here after her week's leave is over. The Beast will surely be so angry he will eat her up in a moment."
So when the week was ended, the two sisters began to tear their hair, and shed so many tears at the thought of Beauty's leaving them that she consented to stay a few day's longer. But she could not help feeling sorry for the poor Beast, who was being made so unhappy.
The tenth night that Beauty was in her father's home she dreamed she was strolling in the garden of the palace. On the grass lay the Beast, almost dead. Beauty awoke and burst into tears.
"How wicked I am," she said, "to be so ungrateful to my kind Beast!"
She laid her ring on the table and soon fell asleep again. In the morning, she found herself in the Beast's palace. All day she wished for the supper hour, that the Beast might come. She had never passed so long a day.
At length the clock struck seven, but no Beast came. Beauty ran from room to room, calling him, but no one answered. At last she remembered her dream, and ran toward the grass plot on which she had dreamed she saw him.
There lay the poor Beast on the grass.
Beauty threw herself on the shaggy body, and finding that his heart was still beating, she ran quickly for water and threw it on his face.
The Beast quickly opened his eyes and said, "You forgot your promise to me, dear Beauty, and my grief was so great that I tried to starve myself to death. Now, Beauty, I shall die happy, for I have seen you once more."
"No, dear Beast," said Beauty, "you shall not die! You must live to be my husband. I thought I felt only gratitude, but now I know I love you!"
As soon as Beauty had said these words, the palace and the garden suddenly blazed with light. Music sounded, fireworks shone. Beauty turned to look at her dear Beast, but suddenly no Beast was in the garden. Instead, the very handsomest prince that was ever seen knelt at Beauty's feet and thanked her for having broken his enchantment.
"But where is my dear Beast?" asked Beauty.
"You see him, Beauty, at your feet," answered the prince. "A wicked fairy had given me the form of a beast and declared that I must keep it until a beautiful girl should love me and consent to marry me."
Beauty went with the prince to his palace, where, to her delight, she found her dear father and all her family.
Together the happy company traveled to the prince's dominions, and there the prince was received with great joy by his subjects, who had mourned him as lost.
The prince married Beauty and together they reigned happily for a long, long time.
"Tommy and the Guttersnipe"
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