"It is almost impossible to get competent help," Mr. Cone protested. "The man shall be discharged and I promise you no further annoyance."
Mr. Budlong, nudged by his wife, was not to be placated.
"Our week is up Monday, and we are leaving."
Miss Mattie Gaskett, encouraged by the conversation to which she had listened, declared with asperity: "There has been fuzz under my bed for exactly one week, Mr. Cone, and I have not called the maid's attention to it because I wished to see how long it would remain there. I have no reason to believe that it will be removed this summer. I am sure it is not necessary to tell you that such filth is unsanitary. I have decided that you can make out my bill at your earliest convenience."
"But, Miss Gaskett----"
She ignored the protesting hand which Mr. Cone, panic-stricken, extended, and made way for a widow from Baltimore, who informed him that her faucet dripped and her rocking-chair squeaked, and since no attention had been paid to her complaints she was making other arrangements.
It was useless for Mr. Cone to explain that with the plumbers striking for living wages and the furniture repairers behind with their work, it had been impossible to attend immediately to these matters.
Ruin confronted Mr. Cone as he argued and begged them not to act hastily. But something of the mob spirit had taken possession of the guests in front of the desk who stood and glowered at him, and his conciliatory attitude, his obsequiousness, only added to it.
If nothing else had happened to strain Mr. Cone's self-control further, he and his guests might have separated with at least a semblance of good feeling, but the fatal word which he had feared in his forebodings came from Mrs. J. Harry Stott, who majestically descended the broad staircase carrying before her a small reddish-brown insect impaled on a darning-needle. She walked to the desk and presented it for Mr. Cone's consideration. It was a most indelicate action, but the knowledge that it was such did not lessen the horror with which the guests regarded it.
Aghast, speechless, Mr. Cone, one of whose proudest boasts had been of the hotel's cleanliness, could not have been more shocked if he had learned that he was a leper.
There were shudders, ejaculations, and a general determination to leave even sooner than anticipated.
"Where did you find it?" Mr. Cone finally managed to ask hoarsely.
"Walking on my pillow!" replied Mrs. Stott, dramatically. "And I think there are others! If you will see that my trunks get off on the 4:17 I shall be obliged to you."