A Fairy Tale

In honor of Valentine's Day, I present to you my own version (complete with artwork!) of my favorite fairy tale ever, "Beauty and the Beast": a tale of inner and outer beauty, selfless sacrifice, and unconditional love.  


And to enhance your reading experience--although, honestly, this video has some gorgeous visuals too!--I have included this video-recording of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture.  Yes, I know, it's a sad-and-romantic story, and "Beauty and the Beast" is most certainly not sad...the point is, this music is dramatic and gorgeous, and just perfect to underscore the story.  So.  :)  Just click play and listen as you read, or watch the video by itself!  


Enjoy!

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Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a land far, far away, way across the ocean...

There was a wealthy merchant.  He had been the owner of a prosperous business that sent many ships with many loads of fine and expensive cargo across the oceans for many years, and he lived in a large house in the city with his family.  His wife had passed on years before, leaving him with his six children.  

The merchant's children were two boys, and three girls.  His eldest son wanted to become a lawyer and perhaps some day a judge; his second oldest son wished to pursue a scholarly life and teach as a professor at the city's university.  His two eldest daughters wanted nothing more than to marry handsome, wealthy young men and live forever as the toast of society.  His youngest daughter was different.  She was a quiet and thoughtful girl, who did her best to be as helpful to her father as she could: keeping house and looking after her brothers and sisters.  She was kind, even-tempered, intelligent, and gentle.  Her beauty, inside and out, was so great that people had taken to calling her that: Beauty.  Her sisters sneered at the nickname, and her brothers sometimes teased, but she only smiled at them and went on about her days.

But into the midst of their happy lives fell great misfortune.  During the stormy springtime, all of the merchant's ships were lost at sea: either to the tempests or to marauding pirates.  The merchant's business was ruined.  The family was forced to give up their fine city home and sell everything they owned to pay for the merchant's many debts.  Then, having nowhere else to go, they traveled deep into the countryside and took up a new home there, at a tiny farm that was just outside a little village.

The merchant's sons took this change of events in stride, as young fellows will, but the two eldest daughters wept and complained and bemoaned their sad state.  "We have no hope now!" they railed to their father. "What man would want a penniless wife?  What sort of man would look in a hovel for a bride?  We are doomed to a beggar's state forever!"

Beauty, however, said no such things.  Instead, she kissed her father on the cheek and said, "Let me look after them, Father.  I will take care of the house, and you will never have to worry about a thing."  And she was true to her word, for many months.

After some time had passed, however, the merchant received a letter telling him that not all of his fleet of ships had been lost, and that if he would hurry and travel to the port to claim them, he might stand some change of regaining his lost wealth!  Joyously, he gathered his children and told them the wonderful news.  Beauty and her brothers were overwhelmed with happiness for their father--and the two eldest sisters immediately began to ply their father with requests for gifts that he might buy for them, using his newly-returned wealth.  "Bring us jewels and gowns and shoes!  Bring us chocolates and perfumes and baubles!" they chattered to him, and, smiling, the merchant turned to his youngest daughter.  

"Your sisters have made their requests for their presents, Beauty," he said. "What would you like?"

Beauty knew that her father should not be spending what money he might regain from the rescued ships to buy presents for their family; there were many other things that they needed more.  So she thought for a moment, and then told him...

"Father, I would like for you to bring me a white rose.  I miss the flowers from our garden in the city, and we have no roses here.   It would bring me great happiness to see one again."

Her sisters set into gales of laughter.  "A rose!  Our little sister is trying to make us look foolish with her simpleton's request!"

But her father smiled at his youngest daughter.  

"If it is a rose that Beauty wants, it is a rose that Beauty shall have."

The next day, he set off for the city.  The journey took him many days, and when he reached the port and his rescued ships, he was met with great disappointment.  The ships had been all but destroyed, and he had to sell what little cargo was left upon them so that he could pay the ships' crews.  Bitterly disappointed, he began the journey back to the farm and his family.  All he could think of as he traveled was this second terrible loss.  What would his children say?  How could he ever make up to them for his failed promises and their crushed hopes?  

He was so distracted by his grief and worry that he soon lost track of the road, deep within a forest, and as night fell, a wicked storm fell on the land.  Snow and icy rain fell in sheets from the sky and a bone-chilling wind howled through the trees.  Between the darkness of the night and the clouds of snow, the merchant could scarcely see his hand held in front of his face.  He got down from his horse's saddle and trudged through the growing drifts of snow, leading his horse and hoping that he would not guide them both into walking off a parapet or stumbling into a frozen stream.  

Then...just as all seemed quite doomed...he saw several golden lights flickering between the ice-coated tree branches.  Squinting, he stumbled forward, moving towards those lights, and eventually the trees gave way to a clearing.  In front of him, he saw a tall stone wall that stretched into the distance on both sides of him.  Into this wall was set an enormous wrought-iron gate, and through it he could see the vague outlines of a massive building of some sort.  It was from there that the lights shone.  

A building that was lit up could only mean that there were people within it--perhaps they, whoever they were, would be kind enough to take in an exhausted and nearly frozen traveler for the night, until the storm cleared and the sun returned to light his path again.  The merchant went to the gate and called out, hoping that someone would be near to hear him over the howling wind.  

But there was no answer.

Then--the gate creaked open. 

The merchant stared for a moment, wondering if there was some invisible hand that had caused the gate to open.  Then he shook his head and thought, 'It must have been the wind.  At any rate, the gate isn't locked, so the owners of this place must not mind if people venture in!'  Whether his logic was faulty or no, he stepped inside the gate and led his horse up the path.  

Once he was closer to the lit-up building, he realized that this was no ordinary structure.  It was the most gigantic, elaborately-constructed castle that he had ever seen!  Although he was somewhat daunted at the prospect of marching up to the doorstep of some monarch--or at least a lord--that he did not know, he knew that he and his horse would not survive the night if they were to remain out in the cold.  So he led his horse around to look for a stable, hoping that someone would be there to help them.

There was no one in the stable.  The merchant looked around, calling and calling to see if perhaps someone was there and they simply hadn't heard him--but there was never a reply.  The stable looked as though it was kept in the most excellent condition, however, just as the gardens and the castle itself had appeared.  After a moment's hesitation, the merchant put his horse in a stall and looked after it.  Then he returned by himself to the castle.  


The gigantic brass-bound doors at the front entryway of the castle opened even as he put up a hand to knock.  Uncertain, the merchant stepped inside the colossal doorway and then watched as the doors slowly and silently swung closed behind him.  Again, he looked this way and that, calling into the shadowed hall to see if anyone would reply.  He was met with only silence.  After several moments of hesitation, he ventured into the castle itself, looking through the many open doorways for any living thing that might be there.  He found no one, but finally he came to a room that looked as if it had been made up for a guest.  There was a fire crackling in the fireplace, and a table laden with all sorts of the finest foods and wine.  There was a place set for one.  


Wondering if this was a room and dinner that was intended for someone else, the merchant stood staring at the finery around himself for a few long moments.  Then, he thought to himself, 'This is an enormous castle, and I see all kinds of wealth here...surely, whoever is the master of this place wouldn't begrudge a lost traveler some warmth and hospitality.' But he hesitated again. 'But...what if I eat the food and drink the wine, and it has been enchanted somehow, and I fall asleep for a hundred years or turn into a frog?'  His hunger and thirst would not allow him to debate upon this for long, however, and so he sat down at the table, and ate and drank his fill.  Then, feeling both satisfied and exhausted now, he sat back in his chair and let his eyes drift closed.  'I won't stay long...I must find the master of this castle and thank him, but...first, I need to rest, just for a moment...'


When the merchant awoke, morning had come.  The sun shone brightly in through the windows of the room, and the merchant squinted, then rubbed his eyes.  The storm had passed, and a thick blanket of pristine white snow lay upon everything outside.  Quickly, he stood up from the chair where he had passed the night--only to see that the table in front of him had somehow once again been laid out for one guest, and a delicious breakfast awaited him.  He looked around himself, wondering how he hadn't been awakened when someone had entered the room, and saw no one.  'Well...thank you!' he called to the air, in case there was anyone listening, and then he ate.  


After that, he felt that his hopes and energy had returned, banished by the warmth and comfort that had been given to him in the castle, and enlivened by the new day's sunshine.  He went outside and found his horse in the stable, looking quite well off itself.  Leading the horse outside, he looked for the gate through which he had entered the castle grounds.  But something caught his notice then.


It was a rose bush, so tall that it was nearly a tree, and it was covered in enormous white blooms, even in the middle of the bitter cold winter.  Transfixed at the somehow magical sight, the merchant went up to the rosebush and stared at it.  Then he remembered his daughter Beauty's request.  


'I'll take just one rose...' he thought to himself. 'Surely no one would miss one rose, in a place such as this...'


He reached up and carefully broke one rose off its branch...


Immediately, there was a horrible noise: something like the roar of a lion and the scream of a bird of prey.  The merchant was nearly deafened by the awful sound and fell to the ground, flinging his arms around his head.  But that did not spare him from the rage-filled voice that snarled at him now.


"Dishonest, thieving ingrate!  After all that I have given to you, after I saved your very life itself, you would dare to steal one of my roses?!"

-----------------------

Beauty and her brothers and sisters were overjoyed to see their father's safe return home, but the merchant looked as though he was a man condemned.  They brought him inside the house, and he sat down with a heavy sigh and reached into his coat pocket, bringing out a white rose that was the size of a large man's fist.  "Here, Beauty," he said to his youngest daughter. "This is the gift that you asked for: a more peerless rose cannot be found in this world, and dearly it has cost me."

At that, his children all set to demanding and begging to know what he meant by those words, and so he told them the terrible story of how he had gotten the rose.  The master of the castle--by whose mercy he was sheltered by the storm--was a terrifying beast, not a man at all.  "He has the face and hands of a fire-breathing dragon, and a mane that is very like that of a lion," the merchant told his children, shaken at the memory, "But he walks upright, and has the body and clothing of a man.  He spoke as a man would, but his every word revealed fangs that could surely rip the hide from a bear."

It was this awful creature who had accosted the merchant in the garden, demanding to know why he would dare to steal one of his roses.  They were possessions that he held more dear to his heart than anything else within the castle and its lands, and for his audacity to insult his host by taking one of the roses, the merchant would pay with his life.  The merchant had pleaded with the creature, begging for forgiveness, and telling him of his family who needed him and expected him home.

It was only when he had told the beast about the daughter for whom he had taken the rose that the creature seemed to take special notice of his tale.  

"This daughter of yours, the one who loves roses...you will return to your home and tell her of your time here, and give her the rose.  Then you, merchant, must either return here in seven days, or...you must bring her here to me," the beast had said.

At his words, the merchant had adamantly refused: horrified at the prospect of sending one of his beloved children to her doom at the hands of a nightmarish creature.  But the beast had made him a promise: if Beauty chose to come to him, of her own accord, she would not be harmed in any way by anything within the beast's lands.  But she needn't be afraid, the merchant told his daughter; she would not be going to the lair of the beast.  He himself would return instead, when the seven days had gone by.

The merchant's sons refused to hear any such talk.  They would go to find the beast in his lair, and they would kill him and free their family of his threat.  No one would have to go to their doom.  But the merchant shook his head and told them that the beast had strange powers at his beck and call--what else could explain the things that he had seen at the castle?--and that such beings were not to be trifled with. His two eldest daughters began to rail at Beauty, blaming her for the tragedy brought upon them by her foolish and selfish request.  Beauty, however, took her father's hand and remained calm.

"Father, you will not go to the beast, and neither will my brothers.  My sisters are right--I asked for the rose, and therefore it is I who will go to the beast and fulfill his demand.  The rose was for me, and I shall pay its price."

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The merchant and his sons tried to dissuade Beauty from her resolution to go to the beast's castle and pay the price for the rose, but she would hear nothing of their pleas and arguments.  So on the morning of the seventh day, the merchant set out with her to find the castle of the creature, deep within the forest.  When they arrived, the castle was once again lit up as though to greet a host of guests, but Beauty and her father saw not a soul anywhere on the castle grounds.  

Inside, they found a sumptuous supper laid out for them in the banquet hall, and Beauty coaxed her father to join her in eating it.  If the beast had meant anything sinister for them, she was almost certain that he would have found them straightaway, upon their arrival; after all, he hadn't hesitated to confront her father upon his theft of the rose!  Uncertain of their circumstances but seeing the logic in his daughter's words, the merchant sat down at the table with her, and they began to eat.

It was not long after that, however, that the doors of the banquet hall swung silently open, and the enormous shadow of the creature fell across the floor.  Beauty stood up, slowly, and she and her father turned to face their host.  The beast's eyes glowed like yellow coals from within the darkness.  

"Welcome, Beauty," said his deep, gravelly voice.  He bowed to her.  "And welcome, merchant."

Beauty curtsied, graceful even though she was trembling.  

"Have you come to my castle of your own choice, Beauty?" the monster asked her.

"I have, my lord," she replied.  

"I am not a lord; I am a beast," he told her. "You will call me that, please."

Then he turned to her father.  

"Merchant, you have proven yourself to be a truly honorable man.  You may stay here for the night, and in the morning, you must leave and go back to your home.  Do not return here."

At that, then, he bowed once again to Beauty, and bade her and her father goodnight.  Heartbroken at the prospect of abandoning his daughter to a life of imprisonment with such a terrible being, the merchant once again begged Beauty to let him stay instead.  Beauty refused, and they parted ways for the night.  In the morning, the merchant discovered that a wealth of gold and jewels had been placed inside of his horse's saddlebags, along with a note from the beast, telling him that the riches were for him, along with his thanks.  But none of this held any comfort for the merchant, who was forced to say goodbye to his youngest daughter and leave her behind, as he had been commanded.

After her father had gone, Beauty stood at the gate and shed her tears.  Then, summoning her strength, she returned back into the castle and soon found herself in front of the door to a room, upon which there was a silver plaque engraved with the words "Beauty's Room".  The chamber beyond was a place fit for a princess, filled with every kind of comfort and entertainment that a young lady could ever want.  

She was not certain what the Beast meant by keeping her prisoner within the castle, but thus far during her time in his realm, he had shown her nothing but courtesy.  Certainly, he was a terrible-looking being, and he looked as though he could be quite dangerous--and although he had given his word that no harm would come to her anywhere in his lands, not all promises could be trusted.  However, she felt somehow inclined to accept his sword--with all due caution--even though she knew very little of him.  'I will let him prove his character to me,' she thought to herself, 'before I dismiss him.'

That night, she found her supper waiting for her in the banquet hall, again.  She had not been sitting alone for more than several silent moments when the door opened, and the Beast stepped into the room.  She stood up at her place at the table, and he bowed to her.  

"Good evening, Beauty," he said.

"Good evening, Beast," she said, with a curtsey.

"I hope that you have found your rooms satisfactory?"

"I have, Beast...everything is fine enough for a queen."

The Beast looked pleased--if a creature of his kind could reflect such emotions.  "Here, you are queen, Beauty.  You are the mistress of this place, and I and all that I own is at your command.  But, perhaps you will permit me one request?"

She nodded, and he asked, "Might I sit with you while you eat?"

There was no one else in the castle, as far as she had yet seen, and so--after a moment's reflection--she replied that he might do so.  He sat in silence while she ate, never once making a single movement to join her in the meal, and at when she had finished eating, he stood up to bid her goodnight.  

"Beauty, may I ask you a question?" he said.

Again, she replied that he may do so, and when he asked his question, her heart nearly thundered out of her chest in terror.

"Beauty," he said, his serpentine yellow eyes fixed on hers, "Will you be my wife?"

"Oh!" she gasped. "What can I say?!"

"You may tell me yes or no, and do not fear," he told her.

"Please forgive me, Beast," she replied, "But no--I cannot!"

The Beast closed his eyes and sighed deeply, and her heart ached to hear the noise, because she was afraid and the noise of his sigh was so very sad.  After a moment he looked at her again.

"Then do not fear, Beauty," he told her, gently. "I ask only for your honesty."

At that, he stood up and excused himself from her presence, bidding her to sleep well and telling her again to have no fear.  That night, Beauty dreamed that she was walking through the gardens of the castle, which were covered in springtime blooms.  A woman in magnificent garb, bearing a wand that gave off shimmers into the air, approached her and smiled kindly.  

"You should not mourn your new life, Beauty, or weep for the life that you have given up.  Your bravery and selflessness will be rewarded.  Only--do not look with the eyes of your mind, but with the eyes of your heart..."

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Time passed, and Beauty remained at the Beast's castle.  She slowly grew accustomed to the echoing silence of the place, and learned to find her way through its immense halls.  She took up new habits and found new hobbies: drawing and painting, reading as much as she had ever longed to in her life before she had come to live at the Beast's castle, tending to the gardens, playing music and even playing cook in the massive kitchen.  

She also fell into a strange sort of companionship with the Beast.  At first, he seemed hesitant to approach her--that was out of his fear that she would be afraid of him and find his presence to be anything but desirable--but then, as the days turned into weeks and then months, they slowly began to become more at ease with one another, and even began to seek out one another's company.  The Beast was certainly a being of his word, and she never once felt afraid of him.  He was, she soon observed, a very gentle and kind creature, with a sensitive and intelligent soul, though he often denied it.  

"There are some men," she informed him, once, as they sat together while she ate supper, "Who are far less intelligent and far more terrible than you could ever be.  You say that you are only a beast, but you have shown me more kindness, generosity, and care than any man that I have ever met.  They are truly beasts in their hearts, but your heart is far better than theirs.  You are not like them."

"Alas, then, that I am only a beast," he replied. "Beauty...may I ask you a question?"

She closed her eyes.  "Yes, Beast."

"Beauty...will you be my wife?"

"No, Beast."  

And although he no longer sighed deeply at her refusal to his proposal, the sadness in his eyes caused her far greater pain than anything else could.  

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More time passed, and winter came again.  Beauty began to feel listless and lonely at the castle, and nothing the Beast could do or say would comfort her sadness.  Finally, one day, she confessed to him the reason for her melancholy.  "I cannot ease my thoughts of my family, Beast," she said. "I worry for them...I would do anything to see them again."

"Then perhaps I can help you," he said, and then he led her to a mirror within the castle.  "This is a magic mirror," he told her. "It will show you what you wish to see."

Beauty looked into the mirror, which produced a picture of her family's little cottage on the edge of the forest.  Then, as she continued to look, she saw a different picture of her family: her sisters were arguing and preening about as usual, but her brothers' faces looked drawn and grief-stricken.  A black-robed physician spoke to them, and then she saw a picture of her father lying in bed, terribly ill.  Tears gathered in her eyes as she turned to the Beast, wringing her hands.  

"My father...he's so ill, Beast..."

The Beast turned and went to the window, breaking off a rose from the vine that grew there.  He returned to her side and pressed the rose into her hand, minding that the thorns did not pierce her skin.  

"You desire to see your family, Beauty, and you truly love your father...and I cannot deny you anything.  Go to him.  Take this rose with you--it will bloom until one month from now.  At the end of the month, it will wilt and die."

"And if it does?" she asked, feeling her heart tremble.

"If it does, then you will know that I, too, am dying," he replied. "I cannot live without you, Beauty.  I will not make you return, after you have left this place.  But you must know that I love you...and I am only a beast.  I could not bear to know this life anymore, if you were no longer with me."

"Then...you have my word.  I will return, my dear friend," she told him, and kissed him on the cheek.

-----------------------

Beauty made haste and returned home to her family, only to find that her father's house was in a state of utter chaos.  Her sisters were as selfish and useless as ever, paying no heed to their father's illness and their brothers' worry.  Their only thought was for themselves, in gaining the attention of whatever fine young men might pass through their village, so that they could marry and leave their penniless state.  Beauty's brothers had done all that they could for their father, as had the doctor, but it was out of grief and guilt for leaving Beauty in the hands of the Beast that the merchant had succumbed to his sickness.  When he saw that Beauty had returned to them and was at his bedside, he revived somewhat, and in her care he soon began to mend, over the course of time.  

As the month waned on, Beauty tended to her father and helped her brothers around their family's farm and looked after the house as she had done before.  Soon, the merchant was well again and their home was as happy as ever.  But Beauty's sisters had watched her during her visit, and they had grown more jealous and hateful towards her than ever.  

"How is it that she can be so happy with a beast?" they asked each other. "How can she be so fortunate to live like a queen, when we're stranded in this place, in rags and dirt?"  

They could not comprehend why she was so special, that she should be given the life of a princess--and by a beast, at that!--while they were trapped in a humdrum little village, with no prospects of fortune or marriage.  Their anger grew so deep and so venomous, then, that they began to plot against their sister.  The only fair thing, they decided, would be to deprive Beauty of her glamorous life at the Beast's castle.

"We'll keep her here, so that when she finally returns to that monster, he'll be so angry with her that he'll gobble her up!" they snickered to one another. "Or, he shall be so unhappy at her betrayal that he will crawl away and die--and then what's poor little Beauty to do?"

So when the month had gone by, one of the sisters went to Beauty and told her, "A messenger on horseback came to us from the Beast!  He says that you do not have to return today--stay for another day or two!"

Now, Beauty knew that her sisters were not fond of her, but she--in the goodness and purity of her heart--had no suspicion that her sisters could be so cruel, and so she reluctantly stayed for another day.  But on the evening of the next day, when she had gone into the kitchen to make dinner for her family again, she heard her sisters laughing and chattering together behind the door.  

"What shall we tell her this time?  Perhaps we should say that a dove came with a message from her precious Beast!"

In horror, Beauty realized that her sisters--her own flesh and blood--had hatefully lied to her, and she had blindly trusted them, perhaps to her Beast's doom!  She had stayed, believing their lie, and now the rose that the Beast had given her had begun to wilt.  Fearing for his life, she fled from her family's home and raced back to the castle.  When she arrived, she began to search the castle from top to bottom, calling out for the Beast and praying that he still lived.  

She found him, in the garden, fallen to the ground beside the very rosebush from which her father had stolen the fateful white rose.  Frightened anew, she fell to her knees beside him and put her arms around him.  "Beast!  I'm here, dear one--please, you must live!"

He opened his eyes, though it seemed to take almost all of his strength to even draw breath.  

"Beauty...you kept your promise," he coughed.

"I meant to return, Beast--my sisters told me a lie and I stayed longer than I should have.  Oh, if you had died, it would have been my fault.  I will never forgive myself for causing you this pain!"

"But you returned, Beauty...you said that you would, and you did.  That is a more precious gift than a monster such as I could ever hope to be given..."

"I will give you that and more, my dear one," she told him. "You have been my friend and my companion, and you have been better to me than any other living soul.  I was foolish and blind, but now I will never leave you alone again.  I love you, Beast, and if you still wish for it...you have my heart, and my hand.  If you still wish for it, I will be your wife...for I would be overjoyed to call you my husband."

The Beast said her name, and then suddenly there was something like a volley of fireworks that exploded all around them, dazzling Beauty's eyes and consuming their surroundings in a light that turned the night into day.  In a moment, it had all cleared, and Beauty immediately looked for her Beast.  But instead of the Beast, in front of her was a young man who was handsome as Adonis himself.  He smiled at her, and she couldn't help but stare--she knew his smile.  

"Beauty," he said, and she realized that she knew his voice as well, "You have saved me.  I was your Beast...though when I was the Beast, I was under the enchantment of an evil sorceress.  I'm the prince of these lands, and I had refused her love.  In revenge, she cursed me to be a terrible creature, to live alone until a woman could learn to see my true character and love me for my true self, without fear."

He rose to his feet, helping her to stand as well, and took her hands.  

"I do wish for both your heart and your hand, Beauty, for they are a precious gifts that no man could buy, and I love you more than words have the power to tell...though I will endeavor for the rest of my life to do just that."

Then he kissed her, as around them the thousands of roses in the gardens burst into bloom, and fireworks once again dazzled the air.  Daylight broke, and one by one the members of the prince's household--who had been made invisible by the sorceress's spell--regained their true forms.  To Beauty's surprise, there was a face among them that she recognized.  It was the magnificently-dressed woman from her dream on the first night that she had spent at the castle!  

This regal lady approached Beauty and her prince and smiled at them.  

"You have done well, Beauty--far better than many other young women could have done, for you have learned to love unconditionally and without fear, when logic and experience would have had you do otherwise.  Because you have sought to comfort another and bring happiness and love into his life, you have both rescued him and earned a great joy.  It is the first of many joys to come for you both."

Then, the lady--who was, of course, the prince's fairy godmother, who had been kept away from his castle by the sorceress's spell--snapped her fingers.  At once, each member of Beauty's family appeared in the garden with them, staring around themselves and blinking, wondering what on earth had just occurred.  The prince's fairy godmother explained to them everything that had happened, and Beauty happily presented her prince to her father.  The merchant was more than happy--though a little befuddled, still--to grant his daughter's hand in marriage to the man who so cherished her.

Finally, the fairy godmother turned to Beauty's sisters, and gave them a scolding stare.

"As for you two--you have done a good deal of hurt, and you almost caused more harm than you can possibly understand now.  Fortunately for you, I am not the kind of fairy godmother who gives out curses as punishment for bad behavior--but I think that the sentence that I'm going to hand to you is just what you deserve, more so than any curse ever could be.  You will stand by and see your sister's happiness, and you will never know any such blessing yourselves until you learn to be beautiful in your hearts as well as beautiful in your faces.  There is no amount of riches or accomplishments, no grade of outward beauty, that will compare to the wealth that is to be found in a kind and compassionate soul, and a generous and selfless heart.  Perhaps someday you will learn that lesson from the example that your sister has set for you--though I suspect that it will take some time for you to learn!"

In spite of this moment of reproachful warning, the glorious joy of the day was not dimmed in the slightest.  The prince searched out his reverend, and without waiting any longer, he made Beauty his wife that very day.  Their union--founded by true, lasting, unconditional love--was made more perfect by the devotion that they shared for one another.  The white rosebush in their garden bloomed forever, as did their love...and they lived happily ever after.

The End