THE HEART'S DESIRE
THERE were many things to show that Teddie's arrival in this world was an unwelcome event. The first symptom of such feeling was the fact that three days after his birth his mother drank half a bottle of carbolic acid, and was found dying on the very bed where Teddie lay wailing for his breakfast.
This took place in the big brown-stone hotel that overlooked the Plaza, and to show that there were others who regarded Teddie's advent in the light of an intrusion, the diamond-studded manager of that particular hotel walked up and down saying it was a pretty kettle of fish, and that his house would be ruined, and that if a newspaper reporter even so much as showed his face in that hotel to kick him out.
179
