Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-10-03
CHAPTER II.

in Liverpool to take the train for Lon
don.
Going to the station, l bought my
ticket for Frankfort-that old town l
was destined to see so much of during
the next few years. On my journey |
would pass through Cologne, and from
there the railway skirts the bank OF the
Rhine
l travelled through Belgium and some
parts of Germany by daylight, and was,
as most Americans are who travel on
the continent, shocked to see the EN-
plovments of women. Soon after leav-
ing Brussels | saw the, to me, novel
sight Of a number of women shoveling
coal, handling the shovel like men. In
other places | saw them laboring IN the
brickyards, digging and wheeling clay,
and everywhere they We're to be seen
working at mems work in the fields.
A traveller in my compartment proved
most entertaining companion. he de-
scribed himself to me as one who went
about pottering over lot OF antiquities
and fooling around generally.
But my friend, the pottering old an
tiquary, gave me something of sur
prise. At Chalons all of our fellow
travellers in the compartment left us
Two of them were voluble Frenchwom-
en-, and they kept it up with amazing
energy for the six hours from Brussels
TO Chalons. At every unusual swaying
of the car there would be volley of
"Mon Dieus' and ear piercing excla-
nations, and ii was certainly a relief
when they left
Bringing ont box of cigars and my
companion producing flask OF wine,
we soon became confidential. Presently,
to my great amusement, my old anti
quarry, warmed by the wine, confided to
me that he was a detective police officer
and chief of the secret service at Ant
werp; that he was then working on a
famous case and had been shadowing
one Of the ladies who had journeyed
with us from Brussels. Before leaving
Brussels he had discovered his quarry
was to quit the train, and as he had to
go ON to Mayence he had turned the
business over to a confederate
/ was young, and no doubt he thought
me innocent. Certainly he did not with
hold his confidence. This is the case he
was investigating:
There was a wealthy gentleman of
the name of Van Tromp living III Ant
werp, n widower, 20 years of age, the
father of a grownup family and many
times a grandfather. i had been his
custom to go to Baden Baden every sum-
mer, spending money freely both IN
pleasure and in the famous gambling
resorts there. The last time he had met
a woman, the Countess Winzerode, one
of the many adventuresses to be found
there, and speedily became infatuated
This Van Tromp was descendant OF
old Admiral Van Tromp who, i'll the
mighty life and death struggle between
Holland and Spain, and i'll the two wars
with England, the first when Cromwell
ruled, the second when the second
Charles yas on the throne, held up the
fame and glory OF Holland. In one case
he swept the proud navies of Spain from
the seas and carried the Dutch flag
around the world. In the other he was
only vanquished after stubborn sea fights
lasting for days This Van Tromp was
the heir of the fame and the wealth of
all the Van Tromps, and both had gone
on accommodating for 300 years.
The self styled countess knew all this,
and, as the seqael shows, knew her man.
She was 40, had been beautiful, was
still comely, with good figure, fair
haired, but with steel blue eyes. She
spoke many languages and had dwelt i'll
every land from Petersburg TO Paris.
1t is needless to tell how they first met
or of the intimacy that sprang up be-
tween them, but / will merely say in
passing that within five days of their
first meeting he had given her magnlf-
icent diamond bracelet which had been
in his family more than century. This
alarmed his two daughters, who were
terrified at the mere suspicion that their
father was III earnest and might posi-
bly, present them with stepmother,
above all comparatively young step
mother, and, so far as physique went,
a magnificent animal, with promise of
long life, SO long that her rights of
dover would make a cut III the Van
Tromp estates and treasures which
might well cause the old admiral to
rouse himself from his three century
sleep in Dordrecht church and once
more walk these glimpses of the moon
ia protest of the sacrilege.
Then the scandal of countess adven-
turess becoming Van Tromp-head of
that family tool They knew of the pen
chant of the countess and cared nothing
for it until, with feeling akin to
horror, they observed at the dress bali
one night the countess airing the his
toric bracelet. 1t would require a vol
pme to relate the scenes that followed
in the Van Tromp domicile on this
paralyzing discovery, but prayers, tears
and histrionic touches were all met by
the stolid reply of Van Tromp, II please
myself. "
As a last resort the daughters appeal
ed to the countess, offering all their
ready cash and pension if she would
only disappear. But visions Of the
Van Tromp diamonds and of the Van
Tromp bank account were in her head,
and she was deaf to every appeal In
fact, she depised these heavy, matter of
fact Dutch ladies and rather glOried TO
think that she would soon be the female
had of the Van Tromp house and step
mother to these two highly respectable
danes, who would perforce have to live
in her shadow. But then of course the
eoantess was a woman, and it is to be
feared that even good women love to
triumph over others. She of course
could have no love for this portly old
gentleman of TO- But it is pitiful to
think he was madly infatuated. The
poor old man, in spite of his umoman-
tic appearance, had warm blood in his
veins and plenty Of romance in his
heart. At last, i'll spite of gossip aud
opposition, they were married, and then
instead Of settling down, as the happy
groom had hoped, to life of welded
bliss in one of his country houses at
Dordrecht, Lady Van Tromp insisted
on spending her honeymoon III Paris
There they went, and the very day of
their arrigal the bride resumed a haison
with beggarly count, who, not being
an actual criminal, yet was written
black enough in the books of the Paris
police and for whom the countess had
as warm an admiration as one OF her
eoid, calculating nature was capable OF
feeling.
Van Tromp speedily found his dream
of bliss blown to the winds, but he was
not so blind as not to see that his wife
not only did not love him, but was false
Z II, 1-a1I Poor old Van T'rOmp