The St. Johns herald., 1901-01-26
{ The Man of Her Choice 2 S By Wm. J. Hampton. C ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

HH AR1 dOWAhO Was the pretLle6b MI chambermaid in the hotel, and Mr. Doan was the oldest boarder Not oldest in point of years, but in point of occupancy, although he was not as young as he was when he passed his fftieth birthday. He roomed on the floor that Mary had the care of, and after years ac- quafntance with her be had decided in his own mind that she was very nice girl. Mary liked Mir. Doan well enough, but that was all, for be wac a bachelor, and she rather had her doubts about such old bachelors as he was. But Mir. Doan was rich and liberal, and so polite always that he gradually won favor in Mary's eyes.
 One Sunday when she was fixing up his room, which was the only time she ever saw him there, he began talk ing to her.
 Do you know, Mary" he said, with evident sincerity. 'thst you are the prettiest girl in the hotel?"
 "Yes, sir" replied Mary.
 Mir. Doan was somewhat staggered by this unexpected frankness.
 "Oh, you do, dosy ,u?" he responded, @ little nettled.
 'I ought to-" she said; "every man I have seen in this hotel has told me so, except you, and now you have, so they can't all be telling stories"
 This explanation did not quite suit KIT. Doan, but Mary was quick-wit- ted, and he let it go as she put it.
 "T presume" he said, apologetically. ''I ought to have told you so before, because I have known it ever since the first day I saw you, but you seemed to me to be lady, and l did not want you to think that I was not a gentleman"
 And am lady, MT. Doan, as my mother was and still is, but l am lady in distress, as the story-tellers lave it. Two years ago my father died, leaving us nothing but little house away out in the suburbs, where my mother and brother live. He never was rich. but he was a gentleman, and when he left us poor, somebody
 
 place. It was the only thing could do for wages right from the start, and we needed something to live on. My brother found g place in a store, and between us we manage to live"
 You're as. good a girl as you are pretty, Mary" said Mir. Doan, land I must go out and see that mother of yours"
 So he did, too, and came back with very agreeable impressions of the sweet old lady of 60 that he had met.
 Mary" he said on the following Sunday, ''how would you like me to be your father?"
 "You are quite old enough to be- she said, sharply, but you are not old enough to be my mothers hus- band, if that is what you are leading up to-"
 "I don't know about that" he laughed. "A woman's heart is always young"
 But Mary did not like the subject, and went out without continuing the conversation. Half on hour later as she was carrying roll of quilts across the hall in front of the elevator, into which MT. Doan had just stepped that always uncertain method of locomo- ton got loose and started down the shaft for the bottom, seven floors be- low. Mary knew what was coming, or going, rather, and with a scream she dashed the roll of quilts into the open door. The cage had only slight start and the quilts were caught and wedged in between the floor and the elevator roof and the downward move ment stopped with noise like wheel taking a rubber brake. Mary dropped in a faint MT. Doan almost had spasm in the elevator where he was boxed up, the elevator boy came run ming from a room where he had gone to deliver message, somebody turned in a fire alarm and the whole place was in an uproar. The firemen were restrained from turning the hose on Mir. Doan, and busted themselves rigging timbers in the elevator shaft below the cage to catch it, when the quilts were withdrawn. and presently Mir. Doan came down with thump, and walked out scared almost white. The papers next morning had whole column about it, with large picture of Mary, the big headlines about the heroism of a chambermaid. It happened on Friday, and on Sunday Mary was at her post again. When MT. Doan saw her he did not wait to ask her about the flowers he had sent to her house, nor about his having called to see her without seeing her.
 Mary" he said, in the matter of fact way of 8 man of so, you saved my life, and I want to do something to show my appreciation of it."
 'Oh, Mir. Doan," she almost pleaded, "don't say anything more about it. I didn't do anything"
 You saved my life. Isn't that any thing? It is to me if it isn't to you!"
 q would have done just the same for Tom"
 Tom was the elevator boy.
 "Wsll, I'm going to offer you some thing a kid like Tom couldn't offer you, and that is the heart and the hand of an elderly man."
 "You moan you want to marry me for saving your hfe?" asked Mary completely dazed.
 Mot exactly, Mary. I-I-I," hes itated MT. Doan.
 "It's just the same thing, and can't permit il" said Mary resolutely. "You are rich and am poor, and it would be just as if saved you for