"I suppose you have been in the ball-room ?" "Yes--but I am rather tired this evening.

I will wait." "You were here at the last great ball, before the old prince died, were you not ?" asked Giovanni, remembering that he had first seen her on that occasion.
"Yes," she answered; "and I remember that we danced together; and the accident to the window, and the story of the ghost." So they fell into conversation, and though one or two of the men ventured an ineffectual remark, the little circle dropped away, and Giovanni was left alone by the side of the Duchessa.

The distant opening strains of a waltz came floating down the gallery, but neither of the two heard, nor cared.
"It is strange," Giovanni said.

"They say it has always happened, since the memory of man.

No one has ever seen anything, but whenever there is a great ball, there is a crash of broken glass some time in the course of the evening.