As she had only visited Paris a time or two before her marriage, Constance had never seen the Carnival unmarried. After her marriage, she had never been able to do more than watch from afar, held back from following the glittering spectacle and wild colors by Bonacieux's admonitions that such things were neither respectable nor civilized. It had not mattered to him that it was a sort of pressure release for all of Paris, but seeing only the thefts and the brawls, had done all he could to keep her from watching its parades and examining the offerings of those temporary market stalls.

The thought of her freedom then buoyed, rather than weighted her. She could see the Carnival the coming year. Could play the games offered at this strange pocket of a world and not feel guilty over it.

"A date?" she asked, unfamiliar with that word applied to more than the calendar or an exotic treat. "Is that something like courting?" She considered that for a brief second before she answered, unthinking of how he might take it, but honest all the same, "I've never been courted before."