Liefdesstrijd

Summary

For some years Kate van Marlen has had a liaison with the profligate Count Alfred van der Loo, who accepts her passionate love but does not intend to marry her. At a garden-party given by her mother, the Baroness, Kate tries to force Van der Loo to propose and is shocked when he tells her bluntly that he does not want her. Profoundly humiliated, Kate accepts the proposal of Count Ruprecht van Halden, a cavalry-lieutenant who adores her. Before her marriage she tries once more, in vain, to re-win Van der Loo's love. Amiable in society, Van der Loo is hard on his tenants, one of whom, with wife and sick children, is driven from his cottage when he cannot pay the rent. At the home of the Baroness, Van der Loo meets her niece Alice and decides she is a wife fit for him. The news of Van der Loo's engagement reaches Kate when her husband's friend Achthoven is visiting them. Seeing her reaction, Van Halden realizes that Kate married him while loving another. He leaves her and goes with an expeditionary force to the East Indies, even though Kate, who now loves her husband, begs him to stay but does not tell him that she is expecting his child. Back from his honeymoon, Van der Loo soon becomes bored with Alice and married life and attempts, without success, to revive his relationship with Kate. In the meantime he has had the dismissed tenant arrested for having stolen a chicken. Three years later, Achthoven meets Kate and sees her child. He insults her by suggesting that Van der Loo is the father. Returning to his regiment, Achthoven repeats his suspicions to Van Halden, who challenges him to a duel. Kate's husband is only slightly wounded. One day, while inspecting his grounds, Van der Loo is met by the former tenant, recently released from prison. With fanatical hatred, the man overpowers the Count, ties him to a tree and sets fire to the surrounding bushes. From the castle, Alice sees the flames and hurries to the spot in time to save her husband from a fiery death. Hovering in a state between insanity and normality, Van der Loo begs Kate to visit him before he dies, hoping to hear from her that she forgives him for all his transgressions that have caused her so much suffering.

Synopsis remarks: In the German synopsis, the character played by Willem van der Veer is called Count Alfred von der Grecht and the character played by Annie Bos is called Irma. In the French synopsis, the character played by Paula de Waart is called the Countess d'Echarre, that played by Willem van der Veer is called Van-Loo and the character played by Florent la Roche is called the Count de Florenta.