The necklace shrank at once to its proper size.
"The necklace—the necklace—where did it come from?"
"He gave it to me without saying a word. I think——"
She had not time to finish. The fatal necklace grew shorter and shorter till it choked her. She gasped for breath.
"You are keeping back part of the truth," cried her schoolmates.
"He said—that I was—one of the greatest—liars in the world." The necklace loosened about her neck, but Coralie still cried with pain.
"That was why Merlin gave me the necklace. He said that it would make me truthful. What a silly I have been to be proud of it!"
Her playmates were sorry for her. "If I were in your place," said one of them, "I should send back the necklace. Why do you not take it off?"
Poor Coralie did not wish to speak. The stones, however, began to dance up and down and to make a terrible clatter.
"There is something you have not told us," laughed the little girls.