“It is the first ball of the season, do not tell me you are already fed up?” Barlow teases Annie, who would rather be anywhere but at the edge of the ballroom. She tried to avoid attending, but her father insisted. Alicia, their sister, encourages them to make good impressions and find suitable matches. Annie, however, finds the idea of marriage and family dreadful. She’d rather spend her time in the library than engage in courtship. She escapes the ballroom and finds solace in the estate library.