Park. This was probably the 'Institution de demoiselles' run by the widow Jouret in the Rue Ducale. Thanks to a guestbook used by the twenty-year-old Justine, we know she was back in The Hague in November 1897. In the first years of her marriage Justine learned to speak and write Italian. Most probably tutor Marie Rivoire had already planted the seed of the Italian language. As appears from her 1911 article Justine mastered this language long before the Florence edition of her book came out (1930). It seems possible that future university professor of Italian Romano Nobile Guarnieri (1883–1955), from the town of Adria in Northern Italy, was her second tutor. At the beginning of the 20th century Guarnieri taught Italian in Arnhem, a Dutch city near the German border. Justine then lived in the nearby garrison town of Venlo. If the interest in Dante's works already truly existed, Justine could have been attracted to the Italian language because of it. At any rate, it is likely that the contacts of Justine's husband (see next paragraph) boosted her interest for the language. Her spouse met as an also abroad competing fencer several Italian sportsmen at fencing matches in Ostend (Belgium) and The Hague. Postcards and photographs remind of cordial relations with husband Anthonie as well as Justine. The longest lasting contact seems to have been the contact with the 1908 Olympic fencing champion cavalry captain Alessandro Pirzio-Biroli (1877–1962). The family archives contain, among other things, a small pile of unused military postcards signed by him, dating from the first decades of the 20th century. Family tradition, works and many portraits show us Justine as an educated woman, who was a loving wife and mother (she designed a kind of goose board for her children), adventurous and elegant. Her cordial personality must have opened many doors. Marriage On 21 September 1899, Justine married the above-mentioned cavalry officer Anthonie Petrus Wirix in The Hague, who would eventually retire as a Colonel and Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau (military division). Their marriage produced two children: Bella Virginie Wirix (1900) and René Paul Wirix (1902). The son would later be part of the Dutch resistance in World War II. The family Wirix-van Mansvelt lived mostly in The Hague at Heemskerkstraat 23, in the 'Zeehelden' quarter near the gardens of the Noordeinde Palace. Anthonie Petrus Wirix was also a military author. One of his