Who's sorry now?

it.”
    ”It’s only two dollars more than what I’m paying now and well worth it. Do I have to pack my own lunch though? I like eating at Mabel’s. It’s closer to my office.”
    ”No, Mrs. Prinney packs the lunches. But if you prefer to stay in town at lunchtime, we can take another dollar off. Oh, I haven’t shown you the closet yet.” Robert opened the double doors. The closet was enormous and flanked the main room on the other side.
    ”That’s impressive,” Howard said. Almost as big as the second room at the boardinghouse where my office is. By the way, I’ve talked to the telephone people. They can run a line up here just like Mr. Prinney has for his office in town. And I can have two phones. One in this room and one in the front hall.”
    ”Good idea. If we were all at dinner, you probably wouldn’t hear it if it was ringing in your room. Ready to move in?”
    ”I won’t be ready until the phone upstairs and in the hall is installed. The guy said he could do it tomorrow. Will you or Lily be around to show him where they go?”
    ”We’ll both be here. And everybody is looking forward to having you live here.”
    ”So am I,” Howard said, shaking Robert’s hand.
    On Friday, Robert was a bit overeager to get Howard situated. Once the phone was scheduled to be installed the next morning, Robert insisted on helping Howard to haul most of his belongings at the boardinghouse to Grace and Favor. He insisted that the Duesie was much bigger than the chief’s police car and they could get everything moved in one trip rather than three.
    ”You’re being very kind, but I don’t really need all this help.”
    ”But I’m here and willing to cart boxes,” Robert said. They piled three large boxes into the big automobile that was the love of Robert’s life, and headed up the hill.
    Robert helped carry the boxes. Finally, everything was in Howard’s new room.
    Howard said, ”Robert, you’ve been really helpful, but I’m not going to let you unpack for me. I’m going to take my time to figure out what should go where—and it would drive you mad the way I’m probably going to dither about for several days. Besides that, tomorrow I have to take away those files from the last case to be stored safely.”
    Howard wandered to the big window in the main room again, and happened to look down. ”What’s wrong with those shrubs?” he asked.
    Robert joined him and looked where Walker was pointing. ”They look as if they’re diseased, don’t they? Before the Harbinger boys start building the post office–style boxes, maybe they’d dig them up. If they have a disease it could spread to all the shrubs. The place would look naked without greenery around the first floor. Okay, I’m leaving you to it. I won’t interfere anymore.
    ”It might be bagworms,” Howard said. ”Those are—”
    Robert put his hands over his ears. ”Oh, please don’t describe them to me. The name alone makes me dizzy.”
    ”Robert, you’re such a sissy,” Walker said with a laugh. ”Now just go away, please.”
    Saturday morning, Lester Johnson, the man from the telephone exchange, arrived early. Robert was still dawdling over breakfast. As little as he wanted to hear about nature, let alone something called bagworms, he liked seeing how other people did their jobs. Not that he intended to learn how to replace them. He simply found it interesting to watch. He was showing Lester Johnson to Howard’s room, and made a suggestion about where the phone ought to go. The man didn’t appear to care about Robert’s opinion.
    ”Leave it to me. I need to do some measurements between this room and the front hall. They appear to be pretty close to vertical. You know, when I had to go upstairs in Chief Walker’s boardinghouse to install his phone, I nearly gagged at the smell. I’m sure he’ll be happier here.”
    Robert walked down the stairs behind Johnson. More measuring. More figuring with a blunt pencil in a shabby notebook. ”Yes, it’s going to work out fine. I don’t need anymore help, sir.”
    Robert was miffed. He wanted to follow him around and see what he did. But he was clearly unwelcome to do so.
    An hour later, Lester Johnson hunted down Robert and said, ”Want to watch?”
    ”Sure, I do.”
    ”You go upstairs and see if the phone there works. I’ll stay here to see if it rings here.”
    Robert hot-footed it upstairs, just in time to hear the second ring. ”Hi, Letty,” Robert said to the girl at