Part 27 (1/2)

”You never need doubt it more. Hardy,” said she, saying ”du” to him for the first time. ”When you came here first, I tried not to like you; then I tried to disgust you with me, and you were so good and manly that I loved you with all my heart. I thought,” she added, ”you would have spoken to me when you proposed the driving tour to Esbjerg, and I was so frightened.”

”Yes,” said Hardy, ”it was in my mind, but I was a guest in your father's house, and I had to ask my mother's blessing and support. But tell me one thing, what was the reason that you would not tell me about your refusing to learn to ride?”

”My reason was that I did try not to like you, and then I refused.”

”I see,” said Hardy, kissing what he thought the most beautiful mouth in the world.

When they returned to the house, Mrs. Hardy saw her son's bright face, and knew he had been accepted.

”Dear mother,” said John, caressing her, ”she's won.”

Mrs. Hardy embraced Helga warmly, and the Pastor saw how the matter stood, and held out his hand.

”I have understood you all along, Hardy, and you are a n.o.ble fellow.

You have my consent, willingly.”

Helga was preparing to return with her father, but Mrs. Hardy interposed.

”You can have John, Herr Pastor,” she said; ”but I must have my daughter here, that I may get to know more of her. John shall go with you, but I must have her for to-night.”

The Pastor had to give way, and John Hardy went with him, and they held a tobacco-parliament, and John slept in his old room at the parsonage.

Mrs. Hardy, when they were gone, said, ”Tell me all about John, my darling, all you know;” and Helga told her.

”He is like his father,” said Mrs. Hardy; ”he was so true and good a gentleman, that I feel the same interest as if it were my own marriage over again, and my son has been my all for years. He has told me so much about you, that before I came it was the holding up the mirror to memory; all what he said, and had dwelt in my mind, came back.”

Helga told her that she could not marry until her father was too old to attend to his duty; that he could not, and would not, give his duty up until p.r.o.nounced unfit.

”I will arrange all that,” said Mrs. Hardy, ”You shall be married to John this summer, and you must say no more; you must leave that to me.

Your father's greatest happiness will be to see you happily married, and he has told me so.”

A few days after, John Hardy and his mother and Helga Lindal called at the Jensens'. John frankly told them the story of his engagement, and, as he was going to be married in Denmark, asked the two Frken Jensens if they would be bridesmaids. Helga wished it.

Mathilde Jensen reminded Hardy that she had said he bought Rosendal because he wanted to marry Helga Lindal.

”Yes,” said John; ”I thanked you for so disposing of me.”

The worthy proprietor was delighted that John Hardy would be his neighbour for some time of the year, and thanked him for the mare Hardy had sent over from England to improve his breeding stock. John Hardy had made him a present of it.

”She is,” said the proprietor, ”as handsome as can be; but she has a temper.”

”She is Irish,” said Hardy. ”But you will find the horse foals easy to manage; the mares may give a little trouble, but they will go like birds.”

The Jensens pressed them to stay to an early dinner, and Mrs. Hardy thought they had best do so. The well-bred English lady made a strong impression on the Jensen ladies, and the genuine Danish hospitality appealed to Mrs. Hardy.

The result of this visit was a return visit to Rosendal. The exact service and the excellent arrangements of everything had its effect on the Jensens, and the consequence was that numerous calls were made at Rosendal.

Helga had returned to the parsonage, when John Hardy one day came to his mother with a telegram. The steam yacht Rosendal was at Aarhus.

”Let us go to Copenhagen, John,” said Mrs. Hardy, ”and take Helga with us. She is fond of the sea, and I enjoy her society. It is the perfect truth that is in everything about her that I love.”