After her husband's return Matilda made several efforts to win his love, and behaved to him with the utmost submission, but he did not respond. Her pathetic desire to please him, her extreme youth and loneliness, the fact that she was soon to become the mother of his child--these considerations had no weight with Christian VII. He repulsed his wife's advances, and treated her with rudeness and contempt, conduct which, under the circumstances, was peculiarly brutal. He made coarse jokes about her condition; he even tried to force Holck, whom she detested, upon her as master of her household. She refused with tears and agitation, so the King made him court marshal, and gave him the management of all the festivities at court, where comedies, balls and masquerades succeeded one another without interruption. In addition to Christian's cruelty to his Queen, he flaunted his infidelity before her eyes. He had no inclination for the ladies of the court (indeed the company of refined women seemed distasteful to him), but at Holck's suggestion he sought the society of women politely termed "actresses," and thereby derived no little amusement and distraction. Holck, however, was not responsible for a woman whose acquaintance the King made at this time, who went by the nickname of _Stovlep Katerine_, or "Catherine of the Gaiters". This woman, according to Reverdil, was brought before the King's notice by Count Danneskjold-Laurvig. Her real name appears to have been Anna Catherine Benthaken, and she was the natural daughter of an eminent officer in the Danish service. As a child she was brought up in the household of this officer, but after his death her mother married a retired soldier, who was by trade a tailor who made gaiters. As Catherine was penniless she accompanied her mother to her stepfather's poor house, where, in return for her board and lodging, she was obliged to sew gaiters--hence her nickname. But she could not brook this life long, and having a vivacious temperament and some natural gifts she sought other means of livelihood. Copenhagen in the eighteenth century offered few opportunities of honest work for unmarried women, so Catherine first became an opera dancer, and then the mistress of an Englishman, Sir John Goodrich.[84] She lived with him for some time, and was generally known as "Milady". At the time Christian made her acquaintance, "Milady" was a good-looking young woman, with a fine figure, and an excellent taste in dress. She was amusing and witty, and equal to any wild scheme the King might conceive. It was her ambition to become _maîtresse en titre_, and to this end she lent herself to all kinds of extravagancies in order that she might gain greater influence over the King. Before long "Milady" achieved her ambition; she received the honour of an invitation to a masquerade at the palace, and the King showed his preference to the court by dancing with her nearly all the evening.