"No doubt your mother will do everything," said Frøken Mathilde, "but a wife is the one thing needful."
"Possibly," said Hardy. "I will consult my mother on the subject."
"I do not like, Mathilde," said Fru Jensen, "your saying such things to Herr Hardy. It is not what I should have said when I was your age."
"That may be, little mother," replied Frøken Mathilde; "but Englishmen are very dull, and you had none to talk to."
As they rode back to the Jensens' Herregaard, the two girls wanted to race the horses back, to Herr Jensen's and his wife's great alarm.
Hardy told them their parents did not wish it, and that, as they did not, he did not; and he, instead of riding with them, rode by the side of the proprietor's carriage. And when they arrived at the Herregaard, the girls dismounted, and Frøken Mathilde said, with much emphasis—
"Herr Hardy, we thank you for your kindness to us, but we both vote that you are frightfully dull and a bore; but we like you very much."
The hospitable proprietor would not hear of Hardy's leaving; a glass of schnaps was inevitable and a smoke, and Rosendal was discussed again and again, and its advantages and defects considered from every point of view.
At last, Hardy left, and rode to Vandstrup Præstegaard, in time for a later dinner than usual Hardy told the Pastor of the practical advice Proprietor Jensen had given him, and the Pastor commented on it and approved.
Frøken Helga asked if the Fru Jensen had given him any advice.