The Courtship of Mr Lyon

This plays on the 'Beauty and the Beast' fairy-tale (I think). It appears that most of the short stories are perverted rehashed versions of fairy-tales in a gothic backdrop, but I'm not well enough acquainted with fairy-tales to identify them because my parents didn't love me.

An apparently impoverished gentleman is out in the snow when his car breaks down. He hasn't got the money to get his virtuous little daughter the white rose that she so craves, so he steals it from the garden of a mysterious house. He meets a cavalier King Charles spaniel and a lion-man upon his adventure, and the lion-man-thing is a bit peeved that he's been stealing from his garden. Initially, he's quite violent with the bloke, but when the bloke shows him a picture of his little girl, his hardened, beastly exterior softens, and he lets the bloke take the flower on the understanding that he brings his daughter (named Beauty) to tea. They reach a gentleman's agreement that the Beast will magically guarantee the bloke's prosperity in his legal wheelings and dealings, in exchange for chaperoning his daughter - Beauty. 

Not an awful lot happens for a while. Beauty fixes up the garden. Beast drinks coffee. At one point, they have a bit of an awkward moment when they get chatting, but things settle down when Beauty's dad returns from his work, suddenly rich. He whisks Beauty away, but she promises to return before the end of the winter. Winter ends, and Beauty is still enjoying the luxuries of the evil bourgeoisie. Remember that cavalier king charles spaniel? He's back! He reminds Beauty that she's late, so she rushes back to Beast's crib. He's pretty much dying in bed because her tenderness and compassion as a child dissuaded him from hunting, and he's a lion, so he really ought to hunt. As such, he's starving to death and is now an ardent pacifist, like a hunger striker from the 60s. In the end, she starts crying, and he magically turns into a normal bloke called Mr Lyon - oh how punny - and they have breakfast.