th which it was stuffed,
availed nothing, and Hardy formed a resolution with regard to the lake
that afterwards had the result of its being stocked with trout instead
of pike.

CHAPTER XI.

"_Piscator._--I love such mirth as does not make
friends ashamed to look upon one another the next
morning."--_The Complete Angler._

When the tobacco parliament began the evening after the excursion to
Rosendal, Pastor Lindal said, "I have told Herr Hardy the nature of
Kirstin's imputations against him, and what he said to-day to you,
Helga, was in ignorance of that. I am quite sure that he would never
have referred to Kirstin in the way he did had he known everything.
His only thought was that Kirstin was generally suspicious and that
was all. He had no idea that when you criticized his treatment of
Rosendal that he was comparing your conduct with what was bad."

Helga looked puzzled; but after a while she rose up from her seat, and
extended her hand to Hardy. "I hope you will forgive me, Herr Hardy,
if I have not understood you."

"Thank you," said Hardy. "I had hoped that my character was so simple
that it left nothing to the imagination or to construction. It appears
to me to be a work of time to acquire the approving confidence of any
one in Jutland."

"I begin to think you are true," said Helga. "You have said no single
word which has not been borne out; but your opinions differ from ours,
and that widely."

"There is, of course," said Hardy, "the difference of nationality, but
in the wide world what is best is best, and if anything I do or say
differs from your national feeling, yet if it be right and best it is
best."

"Good, very good," said the Pastor. "We are all in the hands of a
Higher Power, and we have to obey it. It is not for us to criticize
and doubt, but to obey."

"But it is not a question of religion," said Helga, "if we Danes
differ in opinion from the English or if our customs are different."

"Just so," said the Pastor; "but God is over all. Nation may call to
nation and generation to generation; but, as Herr Hardy suggests,
nationalities may differ, but what is best in thought and deed will
come to the front."

"But why should he despise us?" asked Helga.

"Herr Hardy despises nothing," replied her father. "He sees and
appreciates what is good in us, and sympathizes with the stability of
the Danish character, but he naturally values the broader thought in
everyday life