"I can't; I'm going to have my dinner. I only came up to say
Good-night."

Margery leant forward and whispered coaxingly, "Will you just tell
me about Beauty and 'e Beast?"

"But I've told you that such heaps of times. And it's much too long
for to-night."

"Tell me HALF of it. As much as THAT." She held her hands about nine
inches apart.

"That's too much."

"As much as THAT." The hands came a little nearer together.

"Oh! Well, I'll tell you up to where the Beast died."

"FOUGHT he died," she corrected eagerly.

"Yes. Well--"

"How much will that be? As much as I said?"

I nodded. The preliminary business settled, she gave a little sigh
of happiness, put her arms round her knees, and waited breathlessly
for the story she had heard twenty times before.

"Once upon a time there was a man who had three daughters. And one
day--"