She was not distressed on her own account, but she could not bear to hear her husband run down.
And now all the women crowded together at the corner of the pew, and turned their backs upon her just to let her know that there was no room for her anywhere.
Poor Michal could have sunk into the ground for shame, when all at once a wondrously beautiful, handsomely dressed lady stepped out of a richly carved pew covered with heraldic emblazonments which stood close to the central column, hastened toward Michal, and said to her: "What! is there no room for the young lady? Pray come into my pew, there is room enough there." And with that she took pilloried Michal by the hand, led her to her own pew, made her sit down beside her, and pushed toward her her beautiful gold-clasped prayer book, so that they might both sing out of it together.
Now this lady was the Countess Isabella Hommonai the wife of the Captain-General and Commander of Kassa, whom the latter, as we have already mentioned, had married a short time before.
The whole sisterhood of backbiters was most cruelly checkmated, their vexation nearly choked them.
But Michal, with streaming eyes, prayed the Almighty to protect her beloved Valentine in his present great peril, save him from wounds and captivity, and bring him back safe and sound. She had nothing else to pray for.
And when divine service was over, the countess did not consider it beneath her dignity to accompany Michal out of church, waited in the porch for Dame Sarah, and then said to Michal, who gratefully kissed her hand, that she must make haste and come and pay her a visit at the castle.
All the other women heard it and were ready to burst for envy.