Belle is an orphan who lives on the streets in old England. She gets by, working for little money and a comfortable amount of food at a bakery, where she is occasionally allowed to sleep.
Belle was surprised when a local artist offered her a job to mix pigments into his paints, mainly lapis for his tempera. The lonely man knows she is homeless and lives a risky life, and wants to build up to asking if she would let him take her under his roof.
The first day, she steals some lapis powder to sell on the street. Though the artist sees her and is heartbroken, he looks the other way, feeling that she is despirate. He is very well off, so the semi-precious mineral is something he can spare, even now giving Belle too much for her to work with in case she needs to take it. Well off or not, he is lonely and wants to take care of her. Over time, she begins to adore him. Belle even stays longer and come earlier for simple meals, or just milk and cookies, or just so she can talk about herself before she is distracted by her job, telling him more and more, and feeling happy that someone is listening.
Eventually, the artists checks his supplies, to realize that he's been accounting for much less lapis than he actually has. After some tedious inventory, he knew that Belle was not stealing any of the extra pigment he would provide her. She was actually taking it into her own hands to put it back in the bin.
an evening after her late stay for some treats, the artist tells her that if she would like, for now on, to sleep off the streets, the door to his home will be unlocked and a small bed will be made for her by a lit fireplace.
Belle, though touched, knows she's been hiding something, and needs to come clean at the risk of her losing shelter and someone to care for her. She reveals a swollen pouch, telling him about how she stole his lapis powder the first day of work. She was going to sell it but thought it was too pretty and soft to give up, and that having it got her through a lot of cold nights on the street.
When he reveals that he knew, and even gave extra for her to take, she becomes uneasy. Belle wonders, "why does this man care about me? he just pulled me into his life. He had never met me or knew what I was truly like."
Upset, confused, and torn between having a safe home and the love of a nurturing adult, or all the freedom she could want outside on the cold streets, Belle yells at him, telling him to stay out of her life and runs out the door.
Broken hearted, the artist blames himself for coming on too strong and sits in the room alone until dusk. Still, he makes her bed and lights the fireplace. He follows his wishful thinking and stays up until the thread of dawn. She does not come. She also does not show up to mix his tempera. And a days worth of sunlight passes.
In the middle of the room, the artist sits in moonlight, distressed that she's gone. Tiring ours pass, and he decides that its time to turn in. But he won't go back on his offer to her. He lights the fire, makes her bed, and leaves the door unlocked.
In a dream, he ruminates about a terrible possibility. What if he were to hear that she was dead one day? what if that happened and no one knew when she had died? or how? He pictured her running around the cold streets for weeks, starving or sick or injured, and hearing of her death a year later. Or if the worst happened to her the very night after she left in a panic and found out in a year, or two, or even just a week after this moment.
Waking in a sweat, he goes toward the kitchen to get some milk. But as he passes the fireplace, he notices a Belle Grey, curled in a ball next to her bed, sobbing.
He sits next to her and touches her on the shoulder. Belle looks up with glassy eyes and whimpers. The artist looks back with a few of his own tears and a bright smile. He offers her a glass of milk before they say goodnight, and Belle dries her eyes.
After calming down, giving up her finished glass, and ready to say goodnight, we leave off with the above "head ruffle", before Belle grey crawls into bed, safe and cozy under a new roof in the arms of someone to take good care of her.
