It was difficult to please proud, disappointed people who were ready to disapprove of everything; and when the Duchess of Alba came, three days after the marriage, to join her husband, though Mary treated her with almost royal honours, the haughty dame and her kin were in a chronic state of indignation at the position she was obliged to occupy. An amusing account of her first visit to Mary on the third day after the wedding[60] does not suggest any lack of ceremony, though the lodgings assigned to her may not have been so sumptuous as she thought fit. The Duchess was conducted to the Bishop’s palace by the Countesses of Pembroke and Kildare and the Earl of Bedford, and the Queen advanced almost to the door of the presence chamber to meet her. The Duchess knelt, and the Queen, failing in her efforts to raise her, courtesied almost as low, and kissed her upon the mouth, which she usually did only to those of the blood royal. She then led the Duchess to the daïs, and seated herself upon the floor, inviting her guest to do likewise. But the latter refused to sit on the floor until the Queen sat upon a chair. This the Queen would not do, but sent for two stools as a compromise, upon one of which she sat and invited the Duchess to take the other, instead of which the Duchess then sat upon the floor, whereupon the Queen left her stool and also sat upon the floor; and after an almost interminable friendly wrangle, both ladies settled down on the stools, their conversation being interpreted by the Marquis de las Navas, as Mary, although she understood Spanish, did not speak it. When the Earl of Derby was presented to the Duchess, she was horrified at his offering to salute her in the usual English fashion by kissing her lips, and she drew back from him in hot indignation, though hardly in time to avoid contact. But as the lady haughtily expatiated to her own people afterwards upon the uncouth fashion, she declared that the Earl had only just managed to reach her cheek.