"Only a sweet and virtuous soul
Like seasoned timber, never gives
But when the whole world turns to coal,
Then chiefly lives."
_The Complete Angler._
The interior of Rosendal had been painted, and sketch plans of the
different floors and rooms had been submitted to Mrs. Hardy.
Lithographed drawings of Danish furniture had been procured in
Copenhagen, so that she could select what furniture she thought
necessary for their stay at Rosendal during the summer, and this was
purchased for John Hardy by Prokurator Steindal, and sent to Rosendal.
The planting and improvements in the grounds had been carried out.
Robert Garth and a manservant were sent with the horses, a carriage,
and the heavy impedimenta to Esbjerg by steamer, late in April, to
prepare for the occupation of the mansion at Rosendal.
Then came a letter from Vandstrup Praestegaard.
"Herr Hardy,
"We have heard that your servants are preparing Rosendal for your
mother's residence there. It has occurred to my father that everything
may not be at first ready for her, and he has directed me to write and
say that if she will come here on her arriving in Jutland, that we
will do our best to make her stay a pleasant one. We are all so
grateful for your goodness to Karl, that it would gladden us to do
anything for your mother.
"We send respectful greetings to her and to yourself.
"Helga Lindal."
John translated the letter to his mother.
"Accept it, John," she said. "My maid can be driven over by Robert
Garth, the two miles you say that Rosendal is situated from the
parsonage, if she would be in the way there."
"No, my mother," said Hardy; "you do not know the language. I will go
to Rosendal, and you can certainly take your maid with you. Pastor
Lindal knows a little English, and so does his daughter. It will be a
good sign if she has been learning it in the winter; I left my
Danish-English books there, but I suggested nothing to her in this
direction."
"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 assist 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 gratitude 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 assiduous in learning English, and daily became more useful
to Mrs. Hardy, The Pastor often came to dinner, and the days passed
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--
"Froken, 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."
"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 noble 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 pronounced 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 Froken 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."
"She will not go if I ask her, mother," said John; "but if you do she
may."
"Telegraph to them to have steam up, John," said his mother, "and I
will drive to the parsonage."
His mother left, and, to John's astonishment, Helga returned with her,
ready to go anywhere.
"The Pastor insisted on her going," said Mrs. Hardy, "and I promised
to bring back his youngest son, who is at school at Copenhagen. The
Pastor is a sensible man. He said to his daughter, 'Why should you not
enjoy the kindness your future husband can show you?' and there was an
end to her objections."
They hurried to the station, and got on board the Rosendal after a
short railway journey.
"You had better go below and get your dress changed, Helga; my mother
will show you where your berth is. What you want is a warm woollen
dress that a little sea water will not hurt. There are several
belonging to my mother on board."
When Helga came up, they were at sea. The pilot was steering.
Mrs. Hardy was sitting on a wicker chair on deck. Some one in a
sailor's dress placed a chair for her.
"When you are tired of sitting here," said Hardy, for he it was, "you
can go into the deck-house and lie down. We shall have dinner at six.
There is Samso, and before you rise to-morrow we shall be at
Copenhagen, I shall have to be up all night."
The yacht delighted Helga. The dinner was served so well that it
surprised her; and when they came on deck, it was a pleasure to see
the distant lights in the fine summer's night, and to feel the yacht
rushing through the smooth sea.
"I do like this. Hardy," she said. "Must I go to my berth? I would
rather be on deck and hear your voice now and then."
"No," said Hardy; "because you must not draw off my attention. We have
to look after the pilot, and I am the only man on board that knows
Danish;" and Helga went at once.
Mrs. Hardy, who had heard what had passed, was pleased to see her
rapid compliance with what was necessary.
When Helga came on deck the next day, they were at anchor near the
Custom House at Copenhagen. Mrs. Hardy was already up, and they had
breakfast.
Hardy gave some necessary orders as to coaling, and they went ashore
and saw the Museum of Northern Antiquities, Thorwaldsen's Museum, and
much else, and lunched at the Hotel d'Angleterre in the King's New
Market, or Kongens Nytorv.
"Now, Helga, what is there more to see?" asked Hardy.
"There is the picture gallery in Christiansborg Slot, but there are so
many steps up to it that it will fatigue Mrs. Hardy; but, if we might,
I should like to call and see Axel, and arrange about his coming back
with us," said Helga. "To-morrow you could see Rosenborg, which is
certain to interest you; we have to give notice to-day to the
curator."
"I shall be henpecked, mother," said Hardy. "She orders everything
already."
"No, you will not," said Helga, who understood him, although he had
spoken in English. "I shall give my life to you, and my will too."
There was no mistaking the look in those blue eyes. "You might be
interested," she added, "in going to the Royal Theatre. The play
to-night is one of Holberg's comedies, 'Den pantsatte Bondedreng,'
that is, 'The Farmer's Boy left in Pledge.' It is a good play and
popular. I can tell the story of the play to Mrs. Hardy before she
goes, as you. Hardy, already know it."
"I give myself entirely in your hands, Helga. You shall be obeyed
before marriage, and obey me after," said Hardy, laughing.
"It is not a question of obedience," replied Helga. "I am yours
altogether when I am your wife."
As she had said this in Danish, Hardy explained to his mother.
Mrs. Hardy said, "She is a jewel, John, and without price;" and rose
from her seat and kissed her on the parting of her hair.
"Don't do that, mother," said John; "you make me wish to kiss her head
off."