"I think it will make Rosendal perfectly lovely," said Helga, warmly.
"I should not have thought it possible so few simple changes could
effect so much."

"The cost," said the Pastor, "cannot be much either. I heartily
approve of the plans."

"We will come over and see you at Rosendal to-morrow, Macdonald, and
go through the plans on the spot," said Hardy. And after Macdonald had
experienced the hospitality of the Pastor, he left.

"He is a clever man," said the Pastor, referring to Macdonald.

"He is a good man," said Hardy; "but he has been educated to such
work, and consequently he sees things that did not even strike the
quick intelligence of Froken Helga Lindal."

"I have been very foolish and----" said Helga, but stopped and
blushed.

"Not at all," said Hardy. "You had liked Rosendal as it is. It was
very natural that you should have thought any change would be for the
worse."

"Thank you, Herr Hardy," said Helga; but her voice had a softer tone.
"I wish," she added, after a pause, "you would sing to us the German
song you sang once to my father."

Hardy rose at once and did so. He looked round to ask if he should
sing another song, when he saw Helga looking at him as a woman
sometimes looks at the man to whom she has given her heart. Her back
was turned to her father and brothers. Hardy sang the popular
"Folkevise," beginning--

"Det var en Lordag aften
Jeg sad og vented dig
Du loved mig at komme vist
Men kom dog ej til mig."

This song of the people possesses a rare plaintiveness, and describes
how a peasant girl had expected her lover, but he came not, and her
grief at seeing him with a rival. The ballad is touching to a degree,
and the verse--

"Hvor kan man plukker Roser
Hvor ingen Roser groer?
Hvor kan man finde Kjaerlighed
Hvor Kjaerlighed ej boer?"

"Where can one pluck roses
Where no roses grow?
Where can one find affection
Where no affection lives?"

is exquisitely tender. Helga had heard the song often, and sang it
herself, but it had never seemed to possess such a depth of feeling.

Hardy got up from the piano, and saw that Helga's eyes were tearful.

"I thank you, Hardy," said the Pastor. "No man can sing like that
unless his heart is true."

"I am sure of it, father," said Helga. "I never heard anything so
beautiful in my life!"

"But, Hardy, you are going away; and how will you take the piano?"
asked Pastor Lindal.