The Beast purrs and snuggles up affectionately.

"It's going to bother me if she just goes on not liking me. She likes you, doesn't she? How'd you do it?" Chelise asks after a long conversational lull.

"I don't know," he says with a fluffy shrug. "Maybe I didn't. Maybe it just is."

"Just is?"

"Maybe she likes me because I am who I am."

"Well - yes, but how did you demonstrate it, what did you do? If she only likes people because of who they are and not anything they do I might just be doomed, mightn't I?"

"I don't know," says the Beast.

"I don't think I could bear it! In a village I could just avoid anyone I didn't get along with, but there are only three of us here!"

"Would you?"

All right, all right. Off he goes.

Belle is, predictably, reading a book on magic.

"What do you want me to do about it?" sighs Belle, marking her spot in the book and closing it.

"I don't know," he says. "She wants me to find out how to get you to like her, I think."

"Do you really think I ought to be spending time on that when there's so much magic to learn? I suppose I can talk to her when I need a break, but as far as I can tell her only characteristic is that she wants to be liked."

"If it takes you time, then no," he says. "I think you should spend exactly as much time on it as you want to."

"I'd be perfectly content to avoid her, honestly."

He shrugs, and curls up on the floor with his head in her lap.

The Beast observes her!

The Beast sighs.