"How simply to the point her letter is, John!" exclaimed Mrs. Hardy.

"There are no phrases about their accommodation not being so good, or that their means are narrow; she simply says they will do their best, and that they would be glad to do it. It is not possible to doubt her."

"It is like her manner," said John. "I can fancy I hear the words she writes."

Towards the middle of May, Mrs. Hardy, her son, and two women-servants travelled overland to Jutland, from Flushing.

Robert Garth met them at the railway station, and drove them to the parsonage.

Parson Lindal was at the door, and welcomed Mrs. Hardy with much old-fashioned politeness. "Welcome, and glad to see you," he said in English to her, while he warmly greeted Hardy in Danish.

Helga was standing by her father, regarding their visitor with great interest; she had shaken hands with John Hardy, and welcomed him back to Jutland. The Pastor introduced his daughter to Mrs. Hardy, who held out her hand to Helga, and drew her closer and kissed her, as if she had been her daughter.

"You are a beautiful edition of your brother Karl, Miss Lindal," she said. "He has become a great favourite of mine, and you will be glad to hear he is well spoken of in London."

Robert Garth drove one of the servants to Rosendal, and had orders to fetch John Hardy in the evening, at the parsonage.

The Pastor had time for a word with Hardy, as his mother went to change her travelling dress.

"I am glad to see you, Hardy; but what a trick you played us about the tickets from Esbjerg! I did not like it at first, but when I thought of your friendly intentions, I forgave you; but I cannot thank you enough for your goodness to Karl, and your wisely placing him in lodgings with the chance of good influence. That is good of you, indeed."

"Where is Axel?" asked Hardy.

"He is at Copenhagen, at a school for a time," replied the Pastor. "He will be home in the summer for a holiday."

"What about Rosendal?" asked Hardy.

"It is much improved; in a month or six weeks it will be lovely,"

answered the Pastor. "The plan was excellent that you adopted, and, as you have been written, it has been executed well."

When Mrs. Hardy appeared, perfectly well dressed, as she always was, John could see that the Pastor observed her well-bred manner. "Your parsonage, Herr Pastor," she said, "has a look of calm contentment and quiet that strikes me in coming from busy England."

"That is near the reality, Mrs. Hardy," replied he; "but it is not the fact with all our Danish parsonages, men vary here as they do elsewhere."

"That may be; but you have the greater opportunity for attaining the actuality of what is simple and true," said Mrs. Hardy.

"Possibly we have," replied Pastor Lindal; "but I fear we are all liable to neglect opportunities which suggest only."

John Hardy had been obliged to a.s.sist at this conversation as interpreter, when Kirstin announced dinner was served. Hardy rose and shook hands with Kirstin.

"It is an old servant, mother," said Hardy; and Mrs. Hardy rose and shook hands with Kirstin, and then the Pastor took Mrs. Hardy in to dinner.

Mrs. Hardy's ladylike tact soon enabled her to get on with the Pastor--she used the simplest English words, and Hardy was able to talk to Helga.

"I have brought the side saddle," he said.

"I have seen it at Rosendal; and your man Garth has been exercising the horses with a skirt daily, to make them more accustomed to a lady riding them," said Helga.

"Well?" said Hardy, inquiringly.

"I shall be glad to learn to ride, Herr Hardy, if you will kindly teach me," said Helga. "Your man has told us that the horses and carriage were at our disposal until your mother came. We have not often used them, as my father said that if I wished to learn to ride, I had better wait until you came, as you understood horses, and that he was afraid some accident might occur."

John Hardy had apprised Mrs. Hardy of the inevitable porcelain pipe, which, as she did not like tobacco smoking, her son asked the Pastor to hold his tobacco-parliament in his own study, where he went to keep him company.

Thus Mrs. Hardy was alone with Helga for some time. She found that Helga could speak a little English, and Mrs. Hardy led her to speak of the management of the little household at the parsonage, and then of her father, which with Helga was an inexhaustible theme. She told Mrs. Hardy of John's gift of the piano, which she said she had accepted because her father liked to hear her sing.

"I feel it was wrong to have accepted it," she said, "but I did so on the impulse of the moment; my father had been listening to my singing, and it seemed to draw his mind away from his great sorrow, and I thought any feeling of my own should be sacrificed to that."

"Why, what a dear child you are!" said Mrs. Hardy, led away by Helga's earnest blue eyes, and she kissed her affectionately. "You talk a good deal better English than I expected," she added.

"Perhaps so," replied Helga. "Mr. Hardy left his books here for Axel, and I have been learning all the winter, in the hope of being of use to you; I knew you would want some one to speak English, as your son might not always be at hand. Karl has written with such grat.i.tude of you, that it is the only way that occurred to me that I might really be useful to you."

"You are a dear, sensible girl, Miss Lindal," said Mrs. Hardy, caressing her; "and so it will be. And will you come and stay with me as long as your father can spare you, at Rosendal, and help me to get the house in order?"

"I will do anything for you, Mrs. Hardy," replied Helga, earnestly.

John Hardy came in to wish them "Good night," before he left for Rosendal.

"I shall drive over in the morning to see if you wish to go to Rosendal, mother," he said.

"Certainly I do, John," replied his mother, "But I have a message for you;" and she whispered, "I like her already, John; she is perfectly good and true."

John Hardy was right when he said that his mother's influence on his own thoughts would crystallize them.

The next few days were occupied in settling down at Rosendal.

Mrs. Hardy was charmed with the place. Its natural beauty was what such a mind as hers could recognize, and she praised Rosendal to Helga, to the latter's great satisfaction.

Helga was a.s.siduous in learning English, and daily became more useful to Mrs. Hardy, The Pastor often came to dinner, and the days pa.s.sed pleasantly.

"John," said Mrs. Hardy, one day, when she was alone with her son, "you have asked me to ascertain what Helga Lindal's feelings are to you, if I possibly could. I cannot. All I can say is, marry her, and you will never regret it. Ask her. She is the best and truest woman I ever met."

"Very good, mother," replied John. "I will."

That day Pastor Lindal came to dinner, and his daughter was to return with him in the evening, to remain at home.

John Hardy asked Helga to walk through the grounds, while her father was conversing with Mrs. Hardy, They went to a particular place that John recollected, and he said--

"Frken, do you remember your asking me at this spot why I bought Rosendal?"

"Yes, perfectly," said Helga, frankly; "and you said you would tell me when your mother came."

"My reason is, and was, because you said there was no place you should like to live at so much as Rosendal."

"Do you mean you will give it to us?" asked Helga.

"My meaning is that I will give it to you, Helga. I want you to be my wife."

"I will, if you will wait. Hardy; my father cannot live without me now."

"Wait!" cried Hardy; and he looked into her blue eyes. "Why, you have loved me a long time, and never told me so! I have been in doubt and fear."