The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-07-08
he had found something. But he said


nothing directly.
~ wonder if he thinks / like the
third man best. John Franklin, that's
good substantial name, but John isn't
quite up to it. He'sa Harvard kind of
"a man, of the sunny, fitting. class-day
in-June type physically perfect, hand
some, stunning, might say, and, much
more, he stands at the University gates
with empty pockets, half soberly, half
gladly, and all problematically, gazing
into the great unsolved future. Is il
my mission to help him solve the prob
lem? Does he lore me because he is
young, and love in the light of youth,
shining whittier it will? Would he be
the same in the aftertimes? Would his
promise meet the fulfillmentI L expect
that any would expect? More that
any woman has the right to demand of
the man to whom she gives her heart?
Is he sure as the older man? AS the
sweetheart of his youth fades before
him, in his wife, withered by the years
that wreck the beauty Of so many wo-
men, Will he, in his strong manhood,
be as tender and loving as he now is ?
The Colonel says a womanshould not
marry man so near her own age that
she should grow old before he does.
The Colonel, / think, is arguing for
hirpoalf ba.a.,oo ka hos xraitad an topu
that he must either marry a woman
twenty years younger; than himself or
fill bachelors grave. l know il, for
he has told me so himself, and he says
it is dreadful thought to perpetuate
his loneliness. Sometimes / feel real
sorry for the Colonel, because he is such
congenial, eompanionable, honest,
kind of an old fellow who would be so
nice to have around all the time. Not
much romance, of course, but what's
romance after the wedding day?
Heigho, wish were like Alice. She
didn't have TO make choice. The
man simply appeared and the choice
made ITSELF"
Miss Hoyt arose from her chair and
stretched herself as one does when wax
ing. She hadn't thought so much in
months, and it made her tired, without
accomplishing the purpose sought. The
three men were still i'm the balance, and
it showed no variation in favor of any
one as against the other two. She
stepped to the window as the Colonel
came up and rang the door bell. "Oh, !"
she exclaimed, rs he entered the room,
AZ don't know whether I've been asleep
or not, but have surely had an attack
of nightmare"
'Three of a kind still in your hand,
eh ~ he smiled as he shook hands
with her.
"Yes," she sighed.
"Then fate must hold royal flush, /"
he said, 'to win the game"
"Can fate hold such hand" she
as ked, hopelessly, almost.
sFate makes its own decrees."
"Then why doesn't it do it i'm my
case? 1t seems to leave il all to me to
do"
"My dear Miss Hoyt," he said to her
more gently than his usual tone OF
lightness and jocularity, ''it is not three
men you should have in your head,
but one in your heart"
"But which one?' she asked, ner-
vousIy, for she saw the Coloneps hand
tremble and his eyes were turned from
her.
"I cannot tell you if you do not
know" he replied, and this time his
eyes looked straight into hers, and she
felt heart-throb she had never felt
before.
'Isn't it funny" remarked Miss
Hoyt an hour later, 'that l never
thought of you?"
ats blessing to me that you
didn't" he answered, "for if you had
ever taken me into your head, l never
could have gotten into your heart. A
woman" concluded the Colonel, senten-
tiously, but with infinite satisfaction,
doesn't need head anyway the man
is the head of the family"
And Miss Hoyt only smiled and was
content with this early assumption oi
authority, for her heart was at rest,
aud when a woman's heart Is at rest II
is easy TO smile and be contented.