HENDRIK BRANT HAS A VISITOR Nine months had gone by, and for more then eight of them Lysbeth had been known as the Countess Juan de Montalvo.

Indeed of this there could be no doubt, since she was married with some ceremony by the Bishop in the Groote Kerk before the eyes of all men.

Folk had wondered much at these hurried nuptials, though some of the more ill-natured shrugged their shoulders and said that when a young woman had compromised herself by long and lonely drives with a Spanish cavalier, and was in consequence dropped by her own admirer, why the best thing she could do was to marry as soon as possible.
So the pair, who looked handsome enough before the altar, were wed, and went to taste of such nuptial bliss as was reserved for them in Lysbeth's comfortable house in the Bree Straat.

Here they lived almost alone, for Lysbeth's countrymen and women showed their disapproval of her conduct by avoiding her company, and, for reasons of his own, Montalvo did not encourage the visiting of Spaniards at his house.
Moreover, the servants were changed, while Tante Clara and the girl Greta had also disappeared.

Indeed, Lysbeth, finding out the false part which they had played towards her, dismissed them both before her marriage.
It will be guessed that after the events that led to their union Lysbeth took little pleasure in her husband's society.