Page:The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French (1910).djvu/143

Beauty and the Beast After this they talked for an hour, and in the course of their talk Beauty began to excuse many things in the Beast—his voice, for example. With such a nose how could he help roaring through it? Really, he appeared to be wanting in tact rather than purposely terrible; though, to be sure, this want of tact terrified her cruelly, when at length he blurted out:—

'Will you be my wife, Beauty?'

'Ah! I am lost!' thought Beauty. The Beast could not be so dull-witted after all, for, though she kept the cry to herself, he answered quickly, and just as if she had uttered it aloud:—

'Not at all. I wish you to answer just "yes" or "no".

'Oh! no, Beast.'

'Very well, then,' said this tractable monster. 'Since you will not, I had best be going. Good night, Beauty.'

'Good night, Beast,' answered Beauty, relieved of her fright. She felt sure now that he did not mean to hurt her, and as soon as he had taken his leave she went off to bed, and was asleep in no time. 103