Who's sorry now?

the exchange. ”Connect me to the chief of police, if he’s back from his errand, then hang up.” When he connected, he heard the click as Letty pulled out her plug.
    ”Hi, Howard. It’s Robert. I’m on your upstairs telephone. And Lester Johnson is presumably on the one in the downstairs hall.”
    There was a snort from the repairman. ”Chief, both of them work. You want the other one at the boardinghouse disabled today?”
    There was another click and the repairman said, ”Letty, we all heard that. This is Lester Johnson. You and I both work for the same outfit, see? If you do this to me again, I’ll report you to him.”
    ”Yes, si—” The click off was so fast she missed the last letter of the word.
    Howard and Robert were both laughing. Howard said, ”Lester, you’re a braver man than I am.”
    ”You want the boardinghouse line shut down now, Chief?”
    ”If you would. I’m pleased this worked,” he said. ”Drop by the jail when you’re finished so I can pay you for your work. Good-bye, Robert.”
    Chief Walker walked over to the boardinghouse. He said to the woman who owned it, ”I’m just picking up the last of my belongings. The telephone gentleman will be here in a few minutes to cut off my connection. He’ll do it from outside the building and won’t bother you.”
    ”Good for you,” she said with bitter sarcasm. ”What do you think I’m going to do with these two rooms you’ve been renting? With a door between them? Nobody else will be able to afford two rooms.”
    ”Then put a lock on the door,” Howard said bluntly. ”I only have one more drawer to empty. Good luck, miss.”
    He grinned all the way upstairs, removed his shaving materials, a hairbrush and comb, and put everything in a paper bag.
    There was no sign of the owner or any of the other boarders when he came back down. He went back to his small office at the jail to wait for Lester Johnson. When he’d thanked him again and paid him, he headed up the hill to Grace and Favor.
    Robert was in the kitchen, chatting with Mrs. Prinney about how nice it was going to be to have Howard living at Grace and Favor. Howard came in and asked Mrs.
    Prinney if he could hang his uniform and some of his other clothes on the drying line outside.
    ”Yes, that’s perfectly all right. But why?”
    ”To get the smell of cabbage and cheap sausage out of them. Then I’m taking a shower later to get the smell out of my hair,” he said with a grin.
    ”You don’t like cabbage and sausage?” Mrs. Prinney asked. ”I’ll remember that.”
    ”No, I’ve eaten yours here before and it’s much better and doesn’t stink up the whole house. I didn’t mean to insult your cooking. You’re the best cook I’ve ever known, including my own grandmother.”
    Saturday night, dinner was a gala event. Everyone dressed up as a welcome to their new boarder. Howard wore his best suit, which had been hung outside and pressed and brushed up by Mimi. Phoebe and Mrs. Tarkington wore their best dresses and little hats that looked almost like tiaras.
    Mrs. Prinney had shed her apron and had stuffed herself into her tightest corset. Robert wore his old tux. It wasn’t as nice as before, but in dim light it looked fairly good. Especially since it had a blinding white starched collar that almost glowed. He wore the gold watch his father had given him when he graduated from the private high school he’d attended.
    Even Lily, who almost never wore jewelry, wore her late mother’s diamond and sapphire earrings and the matching ring. She’d given away most of her best frocks because she’d lost so much weight during the two years of horror after the stock market crashed. Two whole years in a dirty tenement apartment on the fifth floor of a cold-water flat in New York City. But she’d kept three of her favorite dresses and had taken one—a light coral–colored floor-length silk—to the new tailor in town. In a matter of two hours he’d fixed it so it fit perfectly.
    Mrs. Prinney’s best china graced the table along with her solid silver place settings. The napkins were pure white linen. Candles glowed and there were cut-glass wineglasses to serve two fine old dusty bottles Robert had found in the wine cellar. Unfortunately, the smaller bottle had gone a bit off, but the diners finished off the large bottle. The meal was roasted pork with a very good gravy, two salads, fresh young peas, and scalloped potatoes.
    After a floating