The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1895-04-24
Only a Woman, After All.
BY W. J. LAMProN.

1t was Helen Hoyt's third revolu-
ton in the fashio oable maelstrom
called Society" and as yet, though
slightly giddy, she had not lost her
head.
Neither had she lost her heart, al
belt she was %, and there are young
women who think If they still retain
possession of their hearts up to that
advanced age, they are destined to
hold them forever.
1t may be doubted if she had
heart to lose. She had heart, but
her head went with it, and when
woman's head goes with her heart,
she seldom loses it, She may let it go
into the keeping of man, but that is
not always losing it, as the term is
generally applied among sentimental
lists. She knows where it is, and it is
never beyond recall. These are the
sensible" women of the world. Never
enthusiasts, but always reliable, and
steady to the end, come veal or come
woe, if it so be that the holders of their
hearts are worthy. Heroines they may
be, sacrificing everything to motives
higher than mere sentiment.
That Helen Hoyt was such n woman
could not be said definitely, but there
was evidence to that effect in the cir
cumstance that three men we're swing
ing uncertainty in the balance before
her. This is beyond the power of the
emotional enthusiast. She may have
three men in the balance at three diff
ferent times, but never three at one
time. She chooses first, and tho man
puts himself in the balance afterward.
As young as she was, she had rea-
soned three things out for herself,
aided and abetted somewhat by the
counsel of the colonel, a man twice
her age, veteran of many emotional
battles, and n ripe experience, which
had never been rudely shocked by
matrimony.
She had seen him much oftener
than the three men in the balance, and
she had discussed them with him, not
always directly, as If she were the in
terested person, but oftenest under
the thin veil OF "a supposititious case, as
is the custom of men and women
whose inexperience needs remedy
which they are too diflident to ask for
openly. Fortunately for such, there
are those who will humor them.
This afternoon, Miss Hoyt sat in
the quiet drawing-room, thinking.
The colonel and she had talked long
time the day before on this, to her,
all-important subject, and he was to
come again at 8 o'clock. To add to
the interest of the colonel's visit of
counsel, their last talk had not been
of supposititious case, but he had
made it directly personal, and she had
not denied that she was the previously
supposed young woman whose destiny
was to be determined by question,
analysis and reason.
''Ah, me-" she thought, "what O
study the heart is. 1 wonder if ali
women's hearts are as mine will persist
in being? know many men, but O.
them all, it seems there is not one
that fills it, and Alice, who is tn,
dearest of girls, says there can be
but one. And the colonel-well, tn,
colonel, tried to point out the way
but he seems to obscure it by his owl
presence. OF them all, three stan,
out distinctly, asking me to choose
My head says Choose, but my hear
remains dumb. If it should speak,
wonder what it would sayp l wonde
IL in all the world there is no magi
touch to break its seal of silence
| There stands the professor, a ma
much older than inyself;a grave man
noble-hearted and good, devoted I
his scientific studies and rising in hi
profession; i'll at ease and slow {
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