"The Lady Theodora has not breakfasted."
"I know! Yet I would not delay this meeting longer."
Persephoné hesitated.
"The Lady Hellayne is in a perilous mood—"
"I should love nothing better than to find her so," Theodora replied, extending her two snowy arms, whose steely strength Persephoné knew so well. "I long for the conflict with this marble statue as I have never longed for anything in my life. I could find it in my heart to be happy if she destroyed me with those white hands that rival mine, if she but stepped out of her reserve, her marble calm, if her soul ignited from mine."
"If I know aught about her kind, the Lady Theodora will do well to be wary," Persephoné replied demurely.
The covert taunt had its instantaneous effect.
"Deem you I fear this white siren from the North?" Theodora flashed, regarding herself in the bronze mirror and brushing a stray lock of hair from her white brow.
"What will you do with her, Lady Theodora?" Persephoné purred.
Theodora's face was very white.