"It is an ill-favored region, where the sorcerer dwells—"
An inscrutable look passed into Theodora's eyes.
"Can he but give me that which I desire I shall brave the hazard, be it ever so great."
The last words were uttered in an undertone. Then she added imperiously:
"Go and summon the lord Basil and bid two eunuchs attend him hither! And do you wait with them within call behind those curtains."
Then, as Persephoné silently piled cushions behind her in the lion-armed chair and withdrew bowing, Theodora murmured to herself:
"Hardly can I trust even him in an hour so fraught with darkness and peril. Yet strive as he will, he may not break the chains his passion has woven around his senses."
[CHAPTER IX]
THE GAME OF LOVE
