No friend appeared to cheer her.
Indeed, she had no friends left, for by her husband's command she had broken off her acquaintance with all who after the strange circumstances connected with her marriage were still inclined to know her.

He said that he would have no chattering Dutch vrouws about the house, and they said and believed that the Countess de Montalvo had become too proud to associate with those of her own class and people.
Midday came and she could eat no food; indeed, she had touched none for twenty-four hours; her gorge rose against it, although in her state she needed food.

Now the shame of her position began to come home to Lysbeth.

She was a wife and no wife; soon she must bear the burden of motherhood, and oh! what would that child be?
And what should she be, its mother?
What, too, would Dirk think of her?
Dirk, for whom she had done and suffered all these things.

Through the long afternoon hours she lay upon her bed thinking such thoughts as these till at length her mind gave and Lysbeth grew light-headed.