It did. The children would have laid the jewels just anywhere; but the Princess showed them that every necklace, or ring, or bracelet had its own home on the velvet--a slight hollowing in the shelf beneath, so that each stone fitted into its own little nest.
[Illustration: KATHLEEN LOOKING AT HERSELF IN THE LITTLE SILVER-FRAMED MIRROR.]
As Kathleen was fitting the last shining ornament into its proper place, she saw that part of the shelf near it held, not bright jewels, but rings and brooches and chains, as well as queer things that she did not know the names of, and all were of dull metal and odd shapes.
"Rubbish, indeed!" said the Princess. "Why those are _all_ magic things! This bracelet--any one who wears it has got to speak the truth. This chain makes you as strong as ten men; if you wear this spur your horse will go a mile a minute; or if you're walking it's the same as seven-league boots."
"What does this brooch do?" asked Kathleen, reaching out her hand. The Princess caught her by the wrist.
"You mustn't touch," she said; "if any one but me touches them all the magic goes out at once and never comes back. That brooch will give you any wish you like."
"What's this?" asked Gerald, showing a curious buckle.
"Oh, that undoes the effect of all the other charms."
"Do you mean _really_?" Jimmy asked. "You're not just kidding?"
"Kidding indeed!" repeated the Princess scornfully. "I should have thought I'd shown you enough magic to prevent you speaking to a Princess like _that_!"
"I say," said Gerald, visibly excited. "You might show us how some of the things act. Couldn't you give us each a wish?"
The Princess did not at once answer. And the minds of the three played with granted wishes--brilliant yet thoroughly reasonable--the kind of wish that never seems to occur to people in fairy tales when they suddenly get a chance to have their three wishes granted.
"No," said the Princess suddenly, "no; I can't give wishes to _you_, it only gives me wishes. But I'll let you see the ring make _me_ invisible. Only you must shut your eyes while I do it."
"Count fifty," said the Princess, "and then you may look. And then you must shut them again, and count fifty, and I'll reappear."
Gerald counted, aloud. Through the counting one could hear a creaking, rustling sound.