enjoyment), we passed a lady whom I had noticed for her charming
expression of countenance; although she was no longer young. She
looked at Charlotte with a smile, then, holding up her finger in
a threatening attitude, repeated twice in a very significant tone
of voice the name of "Albert."

"Who is Albert," said I to Charlotte, "if it is not impertinent
to ask?" She was about to answer, when we were obliged to separate,
in order to execute a figure in the dance; and, as we crossed over
again in front of each other, I perceived she looked somewhat
pensive. "Why need I conceal it from you?" she said, as she gave
me her hand for the promenade. "Albert is a worthy man, to whom
I am engaged." Now, there was nothing new to me in this (for the
girls had told me of it on the way); but it was so far new that
I had not thought of it in connection with her whom, in so short
a time, I had learned to prize so highly. Enough, I became confused,
got out in the figure, and occasioned general confusion; so that
it required all Charlotte's presence of mind to set me right by
pulling and pushing me into my proper place.

The dance was not yet finished when the lightning which had for
some time been seen in the horizon, and which I had asserted to
proceed entirely from heat, grew more violent; and the thunder was
heard above the music. When any distress or terror surprises us
in the midst of our amusements, it naturally makes a deeper impression
than at other times, either because the contrast makes us more
keenly susceptible, or rather perhaps because our senses are then
more open to impressions, and the shock is consequently stronger.
To this cause I must ascribe the fright and shrieks of the ladies.
One sagaciously sat down in a corner with her back to the window,