Part 30 (2/2)

”Bless you, dearest,” said John, ”I will never forget what you say;”

and he never did.

When the yacht had cleared the Christiania Fjord, the night was fine and clear, but a breeze sprang up from the westward, and grew fresher towards morning. This had the effect of sending the yacht along under sail and steam, and at eight o'clock the next day the pilot was sent ash.o.r.e at Frederikshavn with a telegram for Pastor Lindal, that they hoped to arrive at Aarhus at six in the evening.

”When are you going to marry your Scandinavian princess, John?” asked Mrs. Hardy, when she was settled in her usual place on deck.

”I am afraid to say anything, mother, to Helga,” replied her son. ”I see there does exist a doubt in her mind as to whether she is not doing what is wrong in leaving her father for this cruise, much more a cruise for life. I fear to approach the subject with her, as it may lead to her entertaining a fixed determination not to marry until her father's death.”

”There is no selfishness about Pastor Lindal,” said Mrs. Hardy, ”and, moreover, he is a sensible man. He is certain to desire that his daughter should be well and happily provided for; besides, he has seen enough of you, John, to value you, and I see he likes you. I think you are right not to speak to Helga on the subject; leave it to me and Pastor Lindal.”

”Thank you, mother, a thousand times,” said John. ”I understand you perfectly well, and I will do anything you think best or shall arrange.”

”What I have thought of, John, is this,” said his mother: ”you can be married, say, the first of August, and remain at Rosendal for your honeymoon, and then come home to Hardy Place.”

”And what will you do, mother?” asked John.

”I see you do not want your own mother in the way during the honeymoon,” said Mrs. Hardy, smiling. ”You can send the yacht round to Esbjerg, and I will meet it by rail as soon as you are married, and return home in the yacht to Harwich.”

”What! go home alone, mother?” said John. ”I cannot let you do that!”

”Well, you can see me safely off at Esbjerg, John,” said Mrs. Hardy, ”But this is the way that will please me best, and I wish to give you a welcome home with your wife, and I long to see her at the head of the table at Hardy Place.”

”You are the same good mother, ever;” and John took his mother's hand and kissed it.

As soon as the entrance of the outer harbour at Aarhus could be made out, John Hardy went on the bridge with his binocular, and distinguished Pastor Lindal's head appearing over the parapet wall at the pierhead.

”Your father is on the pier, Helga, and you can see him with this gla.s.s,” said Hardy, handing her his binocular. This she found difficult to do, as there were so many other heads appearing; but all doubt was at an end as the yacht glided past the pierhead of the outer harbour, for there was the worthy Pastor himself.

The yacht was soon brought to, and Pastor Lindal stepped on deck, to be met with much affection from his daughter and Axel. It was clear to Mrs. Hardy that Helga's attachment to her father was one of simple trust in each other, the same as existed between herself and her own boy John.

The Pastor was ceremoniously polite to Mrs. Hardy, but he greeted John Hardy with much warmth and thanks. He was pleased with the yacht and its many clever contrivances for saving s.p.a.ce and arriving at comfort, and at dinner was, for him, merry. He was delighted to see his daughter with such a fresh and healthy look, after the cruise to Christiania. Axel, usually a quiet and retiring lad, talked incessantly; he had so much to relate of all that pa.s.sed since leaving Copenhagen, that at length the Pastor stopped him; but Hardy intervened, ”Let him run on, Herr Pastor; he is describing very well.

He will come to an end with what he has to say, shortly.”

The Pastor had thus, from Axel's point of view, the whole history of the cruise from beginning to end.

”And what do you say, Helga?” asked the Pastor.

”I never thought that life could be made so pleasant and so happy, little father,” replied Helga. ”Mrs. Hardy is kinder than I can say.”

”And Hardy was not?” said the Pastor, smiling.

”He is like his mother, little father; their natures are the same,”

replied Helga. ”But he is a man, and men are never so good as women.”

John Hardy laughed, and, as the conversation was in Danish, told his mother what Helga had said.

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