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 Frøken Jensens if they would be bridesmaids. Helga wished it.