a cabinet of ebony inlaid
with gold and red tortoiseshell, and the little seventh key just fitted
through the opening of the gold lock-plate and into the keyhole. Pandora
turned the key and opened the cabinet. Inside the cabinet were seven
little drawers with gold handles set with rubies, like the key.

Pandora pulled the drawers out one after the other. She was alone,
except for the house-fly, who had followed her and now sat on the top of
the cabinet door, watching her with all his hundreds of eyes. But no one
notices a fly.

Five of the drawers contained jewels. The first was full of necklaces,
the second held rings and brooches, the third had tiaras and chaplets,
the fourth girdles, and the fifth bracelets, and they were all of the
most beautiful jewels in the world--rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls
and diamonds, and opals, and many other stones that the Princess did not
even know the names of.

In the sixth drawer was a dry brown wreath that fell to pieces as
Pandora lifted it. It had been jasmine once, and the Queen had worn
it at her wedding.

[Illustration: 'In the drawer was just one jewelled ring. It lay on a
written page.'--Page 347.]

And in the seventh drawer was just one jewelled ring. It lay on a
written page.

The Princess read the writing:

'This ring is for my son's wife, or for my daughter, if I have no son.
It is the magic ring given thousands of years ago to a Queen of this
country. It has the power of changing the wearer into whatever shapes he
chooses. But it has never been used, because the Kings of this country
have always been so good and kind, and clever and beloved, that their
wives could never think of any change that would not be a change for the
worse. There is only one thing in the world that this jewel cannot touch
or change. And this is of all things in the world the most important
thing.'

Pandora kissed the written words and slipped the ring on to her finger.
It was a wonderful stone, like a sapphire that had tried to change into
an opal, and stopped halfway.

There was not a happier Princess living than Pandora. Yet she was not
afraid of change. Girls are like this sometimes, and she was very young
for her age.

She stood looking at the ring and turning it on her finger, and the fly
watched her with all its hundreds of eyes.

Now, you will, perhaps, have guessed that this fly was not an ordinary
fly, and you are right. But if you think he was an enchanted Prince or