"At the Cadian Ball", written by Kate Chopin in 1892,[1] was the less popular prequel to her short story "The Storm". A distinctive feature of the short story is the use of local color.[1]
The Cadian Ball is a soirée for young Creole sophisticates to find marriage suitors. Calixta is the belle of the ball and describes the young men as boring and plain looking. The only man she finds attractive is Alcee. They sneak off together and kiss. Clarisse, whom Alcée was originally courting, had refused to have sex with him, but after a tornado manifests, she arrives at the ball and asks Alcée to come with her; that "something terrible has happened". This implies the cyclone has awakened her sexuality and she has taken him to go have sex. Calixta ends up with Bobinôt, a man she is not very attracted to, but someone she will settle for.