[MRS. BAUER _goes back to her ironing. Grocer boy rushes into basement, whistling; he puts down his basket, goes up to_ MRS. BAUER'S _door and looks in_.
MRS. BAUER. He'll be home soon, I--hope--Jim. What you want?
[_He stands looking at her with growing sympathy._
LANE. Nothin'. Got a rag 'round here? Dumb-waiter's all wet.... Lot of groceries for Sawyers.
MRS. BAUER. [_Without lifting her eyes, mechanically hands him a mop which hangs beside the door._] Here.
LANE. About the boss. [MRS. BAUER _looks distressed_.] Heard your friends across the street talkin'.
LANE. Rotten trick to play on the boss, all right, puttin' that old maid up to get him pinched.
MRS. BAUER. [_Absently._] Was she an old maid?
LANE. The cruelty-to-animals woman over there [_waves his hand_]--regular old crank. Nies[H] put her up to it all right.
MRS. BAUER. I guess it was his old woman. Nies ain't so bad. She's the one. Because my two boys dress up a little on Sunday, she don't like it.
LANE. Yes, she's sore because the boys told her the boss kicks their dog.
MRS. BAUER. He don't do nothin' of the sort--jus' drives it 'way from the garbage-pails--that's all. We coulda had that dog took up long ago--they ain't got no license. But Fritz--he's so easy--he jus' takes it out chasin' the dog and hollerin'.
LANE. That ain't no way. He ought to make the dog holler--good and hard--once; then it'd keep out of here.
MRS. BAUER. Don't you go to talkin' like that 'round my man. Look at all this trouble we're in on account of a stray cat.
LANE. I better get busy. They'll be callin' up the store in a minute. That woman's the limit.... Send up the groceries in that slop, she'd send them down again. High-toned people like her ought to keep maids.
[_He mops out the lower shelf of the dumb-waiter, then looks at the broken bottle and the puddle of milk inquiringly._
MRS. BAUER. [_Taking the mop away from him._] I'll clean that up. I forgot--in all this trouble.
MRS. BAUER. The Mohlers'. That's how it all happened. Somebody upset their milk on the dumb-waiter and the cat was on the shelf lickin' it up; my man, not noticin', starts the waiter up and the cat tries to jump out; the bottle rolls off and breaks. The cat was hurt awful--caught in the shaft. I don't see how it coulda run after that, but it did--right into the street, right into that woman--Fritz after it. Then it fell over. "You did that?" she says to Fritz. "Yes," he says, "I did that." He didn't say no more, jus' went off, and then after a while they came for him and---- [_She begins to cry softly._