"Oh!" he cried, "what will my poor children do without me?"
"You should have thought of that before you stole the rose," said the Beast. "However, if one of your daughters loves you well enough to suffer instead of you, she may. Go back and tell them what has happened to you, but you must give me your promise that either you, or one of your daughters, shall be at my palace door in three months' time from to-day."
The wretched man promised.
"At any rate," he thought, "I shall have three months more of life."
Then the Beast said, "I will not let you go empty-handed."
So the merchant followed him back into the palace. There, on the floor of the hall, lay a great and beautiful chest of wrought silver.
"Fill this with any treasures that take your fancy," said the Beast.
And the merchant filled it up with precious things from the Beast's treasure-house.
"I will send it home for you," said the Beast, shutting down the lid.
And so, with a heavy heart, the merchant went away; but as he went through the palace gate, the Beast called to him that he had forgotten Beauty's rose, and at the same time held out to him a large bunch of the very best.