Gaston entered Maurice's workshop. He looked around in amazement - there was a great number of incomprehensible things that were generated by the old man's sick mind. None of the inhabitants of the town did not see the workshop of Belle's father, so, sometimes heard explosions or some other strange sounds, but what exactly was inside they were both uninteresting and scary to look. But Gaston still wouldn't be the bravest man in town if he didn't try new things for himself.

Belle stayed in Maurice's kitchen, which was completely riddled. Gaston, of course, sympathized with his wife that she would have to scrub away a pile of soot and wash a mountain of dishes, but he could tell by the look in Belle's eyes that she was more interested in taking over the kitchen than in helping her father. Perhaps it was because Maurice liked to talk and had to be constantly encouraged. And Belle was tired of being told he was a genius all the time.

"This thing will never work, I tell you!" Maurice argued hotly, kicking the huge machine, to one part of which an axe was tied. The hunter stood away from the axe just in case, so that his feet wouldn't be cut off by accident.

"It won't, are you sure? " Gaston muttered peacefully. "What's that?" Belle's father would probably want him to ask that.

In fact, Gaston felt a little guilty in front of this old man.

Yes, the villagers thought Maurice was strange and odd, but because of Gaston's plan and the actions of him, Lefou, and Dr. d'Arque, Maurice, even though he was not locked up in a asylum, was still considered crazy. He became even more shunned, and no one bought his inventions.

This must have been frustrating for Belle too...

"It should be a wood chopping machine!" said Maurice, seeing that he was being listened to." Here, look - I had six models of this machine," he pointed to three drawings and three unfinished inventions. "And all of them don't work! I was so hoping that the sixth one would work! And now..."

Maurice pulled a lever to demonstrate the machine, and Gaston stepped back even further. The thing shook and rumbled, and the tethered axe even clattered against the log a couple of times, and then it stopped.

"See - it doesn't work!" Maurice kicked his machine once more.

"Well it hit the log twice, didn't it?" Gaston has always been an optimist. "We'll just have to see what's keeping it from hitting the log as many times as it needs to. How do you tell the machine how many times to hit the log?"

Maurice suddenly stopped as if in a trance, and then his eyes widened.

"Fellow, you're a genius! I didn't set the right limits, and the machine doesn't know what to do! Hand me that thing... " He got his whole body under the machine.

"What thing?" There was a lot of stuff under there.

"The one with the springs. The one with the twisted iron."

"Аh..."

Gaston handed over a spring tool, and Maurice began tweaking something on the bottom of the machine.

"Didn't that one come to see you?"

"Who?"

"Well..." Belle's father crawled out from under the car and, laughingly bulging his eyes in the outlandish glasses, explained. "Well, that prince, the master of the castle."

Gaston leaned over to Maurice:

"No, he didn't come. But I went to him myself, asking him to leave Belle alone."

"Yes! - Maurice finally came out and, sitting down, struck the floor with his fist. "That's what I told him- leave my daughter alone. She's married to a good man."

"That's what you said?" To be honest, Gaston hadn't expected Maurice to be on his side.

"Of course I did. I always said to Belle when she went to town, "What about Gaston?" I asked. It was obvious she liked you."

It sounded very interesting, and Gaston felt something like a prick of conscience that he had treated the old man so, who, by the way, thought he and Belle a great couple.

"That's what I said," continued the inventor. - You stay out of Belle's way with your castle and all that. If I've done anything wrong, take me away, I'm old, I've lived my life. But I won't let you spoil my girl's fate. God knows she's been through enough because of me."

"She loves you very much."

" Do you think I don't know that I'm nothing but trouble for her? I always think I'll do something worthwhile and everyone will notice me, I'll make money... Belle won't be ashamed of me anymore. But nothing works," he sighed.

Gaston felt sorry for him. After the trip to Toulon, he remembered that feeling of helplessness when you try to do something, but things don't go your way... And he also remembered how disdainfully people might look at him. Like he was crazy or a piece of meat.

"Nonsense!" The hunter waved his hand. "Belle is not ashamed of you. And after the castle and the prince came along, everyone stopped thinking you were crazy."

"Did they?" questioned the old man incredulously, and suddenly became enthusiastic. "What a great guy you are, Gaston!" He clapped him on the shoulder. "My little girl is in good hands. Let's see if there's anything we can do..." He went under the machine again.

Finally, Maurice came out and they tried it again. Gaston was even curious, he didn't quite understand how the thing worked, but they had been at it for so long that he had an almost hunting excitement. Gaston had even noticed that one hinge was somehow interfering with some gear and had pointed it out to Maurice. So the man was already waiting impatiently for the launch.

Maurice pulled the lever, the machine shuddered and hissed and... started chopping wood! As soon as the log was finally chopped, the machine stopped.

"It works!" Maurice and Gaston shouted at the same time.

The hunter waved his hand at the old man and shouted:

"I'll go get Belle, let her take a look!"

He ran out of the annex of the house, where the workshop was, and ran into Maurice's cottage.

"Belle, Belle, look! The wood-chopping machine is working!"

His wife, immersed in scrubbing another pot, turned around.

"What?"

"Give it up!" Gaston, encouraged by his success, hugged Belle and kissed her firmly on the cheek. "We did it. Let's go see it, please!"

"All right, all right," Belle sighed, but it was obvious she was going without much enthusiasm.

"Your father is really... not a f foolish man," Gaston said. "His inventions make sense. They just need to be tweaked or repaired."

Belle looked at his face in surprise, as if she couldn't believe what he was saying. But Gaston was serious.

The hunter and his wife entered the workshop. Maurice stood in a solemn pose beside the machine and proclaimed with an important look:

"Ahem... I present to you... A wood chopping machine of my own making!"

Gaston looked not at the machine - he had already seen it in action, but at Belle's face, her face, at first expressing fatigue and some submissive attention, at some point lit up with sincere interest, her eyes widened and a mischievous light appeared in them.

The machine was chopping wood.

"Father-you've done it-you've done it!"

Belle ran up to her father, hugged him and suddenly cried.

"I had no doubt I could do it," the embarrassed old man mumbled, but Gaston came closer and hugged Belle himself. It was good that she was crying. She was becoming alive again.

A little later, they all looked around the workshop together. Gaston wondered what else might be useful here. Some of the inventions worked. Maurice showed a personal page turner, a "push and play" harmonica player, a self-propelled grain sower, and an automatic pillow flasher*.

Belle chatted with her father while Gaston looked thoughtfully at the working inventions. He wanted to find something useful to make it easier for Belle to manage the household. For example, chopping wood was nothing to Gaston, and he didn't need such a machine. But if there was a machine for washing dishes or doing laundry, it would make Belle's housework much easier, which the hunter suspected she did only out of a sense of duty.

"Maurice?" Gaston called out, pointing to the automatic pillow flasher.

"Huh?" the old man approached the hunter.

"Do you think this thing could be converted so that it washes dishes? Seems like the movements are the same or similar..."

Maurice scratched his lush mustache, and Belle came closer and looked at the automatic flasher with interest.

"You know, I hadn't thought of that, and really... We should just put some sort of rags over the blades... Let's try it!"

Belle ran into the house and brought a basin and dishes, and Gaston, returning to the house brought old towels. Together they pulled the towels onto the special paddles used to fluff the pillows and placed the device in the basin filled with water. The machine rustled and began to wash the plates.

"Wow!" Belle exclaimed and clapped her hands together. She smiled and the men smiled at her too.

"This is a really useful invention," Gaston winked. "I bet if the people of our town heard about it, they'd be lining up for you, Maurice."

The old man laughed. Then the three of them took the machine into the house and washed all the dirty dishes Maurice had accumulated during the week.

Then they sat with the old man for a while, drank tea, and went back to their house.

Gaston carried the dishwashing machine, and Belle walked beside him. She was strangely thoughtful, but her eyes were happy.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"Why?"

"For helping my father to believe in himself. For thinking of me."

*Maurice mentioned inventions from the book "Beauty and the Beast. Look and Find."