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 gruffly:
“Good-evening, Beauty,” she answered cheerfully and managed to conceal her terror. Then the Beast asked her how she had been amusing herself, and she told him all the rooms she had seen.
Then he asked if she thought she could be happy in his palace; and Beauty answered that everything was so beautiful that she would be very hard to please if she could not be happy. And after about an hour’s talk Beauty began to think that the Beast was not nearly so terrible as she had supposed at first. Then he got up to leave her, and said in his gruff voice:
“Do you love me, Beauty? Will you marry me?”
“Oh! what shall I say?” cried Be
