A Danish Parsonage Part 36

"I have only asked Sir Charles Lynton to dinner, John," said Mrs. Hardy. "I was afraid Helga might not be at her ease with a party of perfect strangers the very first day she is here."

The Pastor was delighted with Hardy Place. "I see now," he said, "how you knew how to deal with Rosendal. Your English landscape gardening is good. I never saw so beautiful a place! The impression on me is that of neatness and taste."

"Sir Charles Lynton comes to dinner, Herr Pastor," said Hardy; "and you shall go and see his place to-morrow--it is only eight English miles from here--and then you must tell me what you would like to see or do during your very short stay in England. I dare say Karl can suggest something. He must go to his work in London to-morrow."

Mrs. Hardy brought Helga down to the drawing-room before dinner, dressed in her neat Danish dress, and a flower in her hair. She shook hands with Sir Charles Lynton, and thanked him for his coming to her wedding in Denmark.

"Now," said Mrs. Hardy, "I shall take her in to dinner and place her at the head of your table, John, as the new mistress of Hardy Place, and a better there cannot be."

Helga did not clearly understand, and John explained in Danish. "My mother," he said, "wishes to instal you in the position she has herself so long occupied as mistress here."

"No," said Helga, decidedly. "I am her daughter, and will serve her gladly. You surely would not wish me to usurp your mother's place, John, and that to-day?" She had said this in Danish, and she added in English, "No, Mrs. Hardy; you are housemother here, and I am your daughter and owe you a daughter's duty."

It had been Mrs. Hardy's dream that when her son brought his wife home, the latter should occupy her seat, and rule as Mrs. Hardy of Hardy Place. As Helga put it, she had got a daughter, and that was all. Helga took Mrs. Hardy's hand and kissed it.

"What a trump she is, John!" exclaimed Sir Charles Lynton. "She will be the greatest joy and comfort to your mother all her life. I shall advertise in the Danish papers for a wife."

"Let Helga sit at your side, mother," said John, "and the Pastor at your right."

The Pastor did not appear to think what had pa.s.sed was unusual in his daughter's conduct, but this little episode prepared the way for young Mrs. Hardy of Hardy Place acquiring many friends.

During Pastor Lindal's short stay in England, John Hardy did his best to interest him in English life and manners. The Pastor's wish was to visit an English country church, and to see the whole working of an English parish. His disapproval of the gift, or, worse still, the sale, of a cure of souls was utter and complete.

"Your system of selling or giving livings is bad," he said. "No actual sympathy can arise between the clergyman and his paris.h.i.+oners unless they are interested in his selection."

When he had attended the parish church on the Sunday, Hardy questioned him.

"The perfect neatness and order in the church," said the Danish Pastor, "leave nothing to be desired; what is wanting is the warmth of human sympathy and life. The service is cold and lifeless, the sermon like dead leaves. The congregation hear, but they do not listen. There is a want of harmony created by your system; it produces a barrier between your clergyman and his flock; it prevents their working well together, as a rule. In a few cases you will have exceptional men that will get over any difficulty, and will do their duty well if you bind them with chains; but it is not in that direction you should look, but to a Christian bond of sympathy and common interest, as a rule."

"You are a keen observer, Herr Pastor. It is so," said Hardy.

"It is not necessary to be a keen observer to see it," replied Pastor Lindal. "It lies so near the surface that it is not seen, when deeper causes are looked for and ascribed as producing results they are far from effecting."

"Your criticism is hard on the English country parishes," said Hardy; "if you were here longer, you might alter the decisive character of your opinion."

"It is possible, but the contrast strikes me," said Pastor Lindal. "I speak as I see."

"That I do not doubt," said Hardy; "and I think the impression of contrast between your own parish and that of mine is wide."

"There is but one principle, and that is that 'charity suffereth long, and is kind,'" said the Pastor; "and when you came to Denmark and said that kindliness is the real gold of life, there was nothing struck me so much. It was my very thought in a phrase. I cannot therefore understand why it should not be a more active principle in your churches."

"It is in the hearts of a great many English people," said Hardy.

"It may be," said Pastor Lindal, "but it is not apparent to a stranger in your parish church. But there is another matter cognate to us if not to you, and that is the relief of the poor. Your system is costly, but it creates the evil. You a.s.sist the poor to be paupers; we a.s.sist the poor not to be so, and it costs us less. You train up children in your work-houses to look to the poor rate or poor box, as we call it, in after life as something to fall back on, in case of need, or without need. The system is bad, as it creates more claimants on your poor rate. This we prevent by teaching the children to earn a living.

The interest your clergy have in this is indirect, and it appears to me they have little power to be of use, if they had the wish to be so, which with many men must be a strong wish."

"It is so;" said Hardy, "and it does not appear to me so extraordinary that you should observe it, as the contrast between what exists with you and in England is so marked."

The Pastor left for Harwich to meet the Danish steamer, and John Hardy and Helga accompanied him. Helga was cheerful until her father had left, but for a long time wore a sad expression on her face. John Hardy and his mother did their best to comfort and allay, but without success. At last came a letter from her father, and her sadness vanished. The good man wrote of Hardy and Mrs. Hardy, and how worthy they were of her affection, and it was her duty now to give them her grat.i.tude and love; and she became bright at once. John Hardy's friends called, and Helga mixed in English society and gradually became accustomed to her new home, and no one was so popular as young Mrs. Hardy of Hardy Place.

FINIS.