Katrinka

Katrinka is one of the leading skaters among the girls in the December races, known for her speed and buoyant manner. Her later life resists the marriage the narrator once nearly predicted: she remains single, and although she continues to enliven her social circle, the narrator describes her as less merry than in her youth.

Skating and the Races

At the great race, Katrinka stands among the girls lined up for the first run, alongside Hilda van Gleck and Rychie Korbes. In the one-mile contest, she is initially among the five in front. As the skaters return from the boundary, Hilda passes her near the pavilions; Katrinka then laughs as she shoots past Hilda in turn. A girl in yellow gains on the leaders, but Gretel Brinker stays ahead of her and wins. Katrinka is thus among the foremost racers, but not the victor.

A Second Contest

Katrinka appears again among the competitors in a later girls’ race, with Hilda van Gleck still among the leaders. This time Gretel Brinker and Rychie Korbes fall toward the rear, while Hilda maintains her advance from the bugle’s start to the finish. Peter van Holp watches in silence, his eyes shining, as the crowd cheers Hilda’s win. The two races give Katrinka a recurring place among the strong skaters, while their different outcomes keep her from becoming the story’s sole focus.

Courtship and Later Life

The narrator admits to having nearly hinted that Katrinka and Carl Schummel would marry, but says it was fortunate that no such report was started: Katrinka changed her mind and remained single. The contrast between the narrator’s almost-made prediction and her eventual choice is explicit, though the account gives no reason for her change of mind.

Lambert van Mounen also remembers the Katrinka of his youth. He is glad that the woman Katrinka sent him away, even though her rejection had seemed at the time like his darkest hour. The two recollections place her past attachments beside her later independence, without suggesting that either relationship defined her future.

Characterization and Narrative Role

The narrator presents Katrinka through contrasts rather than through an account of her private thoughts. At the rink she is quick, cheerful, and visibly competitive; years later she remains the life of her social circle, but is no longer quite so merry. The narrator’s image of tinkling bells, some now out of tune, conveys a diminished lightness: her cares and sorrows disturb her cheer without awakening a deeper music. The retrospective aside also corrects an earlier near-prediction about her marriage, making her unmarried ending a deliberate part of the book’s account of what became of its young skaters.