"How shall I reach home?" said Beauty; "I do not know the way."
Then the Beast gave her a ring, and told her to put it on her finger when she went to bed, turn the ruby towards the palm [page 333] of her hand, and then she would wake up in her father's cottage. When she wanted to come back, she was to do the same thing.
So in the morning, when she awoke, she found herself at her father's house, and the old man was beside himself with joy to see her safe and sound.
But her sisters did not welcome her very kindly, and when they heard how kind the Beast was to her, they envied her her good luck in living in a beautiful palace, whilst they had to be content with a cottage.
"I wish we had gone," said Marigold. "Beauty always gets the best of everything."
"Tell us all about your grand palace," said Dressalinda, "and what you do, and how you spend your time."
So Beauty, thinking it would amuse them to hear, told them, and their envy increased day by day. At last Dressalinda said to Marigold:
"She has promised to return in a week. If we could only make her forget the day, the Beast might be angry and kill her, and then there would be a chance for us."
So on the day before she ought to have gone back, they put, some poppy juice in a cup of wine which they gave her, and this made her so sleepy that she slept for two whole days and nights. At the end of that time her sleep grew troubled, and she dreamed that She saw the Beast lying dead among the roses in the beautiful gardens of his palace; and from this dream she awoke crying bitterly.
Although she did not know that a week and two days had gone by since she left the Beast, yet after that dream she at once turned the ruby towards her palm, and the next morning there she was, sure enough, in her bed in the Beast's palace.