"Three days hence," she said, "I mean to give a feast to my friends, if," she continued with lurid mockery, "I can still number such among those who flock to my bowers. I shall ask the Lady Roxana to grace the feast with her presence--" A puzzled look passed into Basil's eyes. "Deem you she will come?" Theodora's lips curved in a smile. "You said but just now, my lord, the woman who dares challenge Theodora is no coward--" "Yet--as your guest--suspecting--knowing--" "I doubt not, my lord, she is well informed," Theodora interposed with the same inscrutable smile. "Yet--if she is as brave as she is beautiful--she will come--doubt not, my lord--she will come--" "Nevertheless, I question the wisdom," Basil ventured to interpose. "A sudden spark--from nowhere--who will quench the holocaust?" "When Roxana and Theodora meet,--woman to woman--ah, trust me, my lord, it will be a festive occasion--one long to be remembered. Perchance you, my lord, who boast of a large circle know young Fabio of the Cavalli--a comely youth with the air and manners of a girl. Persephoné, my Circassian, could strangle him." "I know the youth, Lady Theodora," Basil interposed with a puzzled air. "What of him?" "He once did me the honor to imagine himself in love with me. Did he not pursue me with amorous sighs and burning glances and oaths--my lord--such oaths! Cerberus would wince in Tartarus could he hear but one of them--" Basil's lips straightened and his eyelids narrowed. "Pardon, Lady Theodora, if I do not quite follow the trend of your reminiscent mood--" Theodora smiled. "You will presently, my lord--believe me--you will presently. When I became satiated with him I sent him on his way and straightway he sought my beautiful rival. I am told she is very fond of him--" A strange nervousness had seized Basil. "I shall bid him to the feast," Theodora continued. "'Twere scant courtesy to request the Lady Roxaná's presence without that of her lover. And more, my lord. Since you boast your devotion to me in such unequivocal terms--your task it shall be to bring as your honored guest the valiant stranger who took so brave a part in aiding the Lord Alberic to regain his prisoner, and who, within a week, is to be the new captain of Castel San Angelo."-- Basil was twitching nervously. "Lady Theodora, without attempting to fathom the mood which prompts the request, am I to traverse the city in quest of a churl who has hypnotized the Lord Alberic and has destroyed our fondest hopes?"-- "That it shall be for myself to decide, my Lord Basil," Theodora replied with her inscrutable smile. "I do not desire you to fathom my mood, but to bring to me this man. And believe me, my Lord Basil--as you value my favor--you will find and bring him to me!" Half turning she flung a light vesture from off her bosom and the faint light showed not the set Medusa face that meditated unnameable things, but eyes alight with desire and a mouth quivering for kisses.