The following day.
Many nobles of the Palace of Versailles received invitations to attend a small ball that evening. The ball was hosted by Madam Vilar.
No one declined because they had danced the night before—attending a ball every night for a month was common for them, but a ball hosted by Madam Vilar was not.
The fact that the Duke Vilar was having financial difficulties was an open secret.
At 9 P.M., guests gradually arrived at the modest ballroom. After the host delivered some warm-up remarks, music filled the air. The current Duke Vilar, which is to say, Marie Emilie, with a stranger—a young man—took the lead in the center of the hall, presenting the opening dance to everyone.
As everyone whispered to each other asking who the young man was, Madam Vilar, beaming with a smile, asked everyone to look her way and then loudly announced that her daughter, the Duchess Vilar, would be engaged to Louis Andre Davout in three days.