...it is significant that this public moment of revelation, and not the private paroxysms of sexual intercourse, serves as the climax for the wedding night. ...the "proclamation" itself is staged not merely as a social occasion, but as an event of political and national importance: it is played out upon the palace balcony, the customary locus of governmental-and especially royal-communication with the people. To be sure, bloodstains on a bedsheet do not have inherent meaning, but in the context of the ritual described in Dinesen's story, they are interpreted to signify a single thing: that on her wedding night, the bride was a virgin. ...the morning sheet ritual is in place to bear out an expected, routine reading of sexual integrity, a fact emphasized by the choice of tense in "the Chamberlain would solemnly proclaim," which denotes a habitual action. ...it entails more than twice the number of words.