Miss Brightburn was a woman of small stature, sandy blonde hair, and held a perpetual look of discontent. To onlookers, she was described as cold or daydreaming the latter the kinder expression. This expression was not for a cold disposition but a mere consequence of thinking for Miss Brightburn. She knew of the popular opinion that too much thinking on a woman's part is ill-advised. So here she was trying not to think on the third Friday night in April, at the third Ball, Thrown in the honor of the third son of some gentleman who thought highly of himself. And she was BORED.