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Updated: June 20, 2025
You would have seen that she was very pleasant to look at, this Koosje, very comely and clean, whether she happened to be very busy, or whether it had been Sunday, and, with her very best gown on, she was out for a promenade in the Baan, after duly going to service as regularly as the Sabbath dawned in the grand old Gothic choir of the cathedral.
Somehow Koosje was altogether different; he could not endure the touch of her heavy hand, the tones of her less refined voice; he grew impatient at the denser perceptions of her mind.
But it was on Sunday that Koosje shone forth in all the glory of a black gown and her jewellery with great ear-rings to match the clasp of her necklace, and a heavy chain and cross to match that again, and one or two rings; while on her head she wore an immense cap, much too big to put a bonnet over, though for walking she was most particular to have gloves.
In that shop was a handsome, prosperous, middle-aged woman, well dressed and well mannered, no longer Professor van Dijck's Koosje, but the Jevrouw van Kampen. Yes; Koosje had come to be a prosperous tradeswoman of good position, respected by all. But she was Koosje van Kampen still; the romance which had come to so disastrous and abrupt an end had sufficed for her life.
"Is she then to remain for the night?" Koosje asked, a little surprised. "Oh, don't send me away!" the golden-haired girl broke out, in a voice that was positively a wail, and clasping a pair of pretty, slender hands in piteous supplication. "Where do you come from?" the old gentleman asked, much as if he expected she might suddenly jump up and bite him.
Not that she had intended to tell him at first; she was only three and twenty, and, though Jan van der Welde was as fine a fellow as could be seen in Utrecht, and had good wages and something put by, Koosje was by no means inclined to rush headlong into matrimony with undue hurry.
"That is the only room which does not contain specimens that would probably frighten the poor child. I am very much afraid, Koosje," he concluded, doubtfully, "that she is a lady; and what we are to do with a lady I can't think." With that the old gentleman shuffled off to his cosey room, and Koosje turned back to her kitchen. "He'll never think of marrying her," mused Koosje, rather blankly.
Koosje tried to lift her; but the dead-weight was beyond her, young and strong as she was. Then the rain and the wind came on again in fiercer gusts than before; the woman's moans grew louder and louder, and what to do Koosje knew not.
"Yes, Jan is dead," Truide answered. "And he left you nothing?" Koosje asked. "We had had nothing for a long time," Truide replied, in her sad, crushed voice. "We didn't get on very well; he soon got tired of me." "That was a weakness of his," remarked Koosje, drily. "We lost five little ones, one after another," Truide continued. "And Jan was fond of them, and somehow it seemed to sour him.
The next moment a maid came running into the shop. "Take these people into the kitchen and give them something to eat. Put them by the stove while you prepare it. There is some soup and that smoked ham we had for koffy. Then come here and take my place for a while." "Je, jevrouw," said Yanke, disappearing again, followed by Truide and her children. Then Koosje sat down again, and began to think.
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