"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."