Who's sorry now?

his over-the-hill dinner jacket and signed on the first line with a flourish at the end.
    When he went upstairs to bed, he looked around for a good place to hide what else he’d bought on his book-buying trip to the city. Mimi cleaned every room ferociously at least twice a week, but as far as Robert knew, she never looked inside drawers or cabinets. So he hid his purchase in the drawer with his shaving and bathing things.
    On Tuesday Robert was eager to start getting signatures, but there were a few things he needed to do first. He dropped in at the nasty little house right by the railroad tracks that the chief of police had lived in, then sold to the Harbinger boys.
    Harry was there. His younger brother Jim was away—busy fixing somebody’s plumbing pipe to the bathtub. Robert explained why he had come to visit. ”I’m going to get a petition signed by as many people as I can to put up a big piece of furniture to hold people’s mail in slots, drawers, or shelves divided into individual places so people don’t have to go through all the mailbags to find their own things.”
    ”Good idea. I don’t get much mail, but when I’m waiting for something I’ve ordered like an unusual piece of plumbing tubing, or a special kind of paintbrush, it’s a nuisance to rummage through the bags with everyone else’s mail.”
    ”I’m glad you like the idea,” Robert said. ”Mainly because you and your brother will have to make the sorting furniture. You’ll be paid for your time and skills, of course,” he said breezily, not knowing if this would come true. If not, he’d have to find the money himself. Or rather, Lily would have to persuade Mr. Prinney to use the estate money.
    ”Could you manage it with scrap lumber?” Robert asked Harry.
    ”I have more scrap wood than I know what to do with. Now I have a way to get rid of it.” Harry rubbed his hands together and smiled. ”I’ve never taken on a job like this, but it sounds interesting.”
    While they were talking, Robert was taking in their living quarters. Howard Walker had always hated this house. It was close to the river. It had reeked of mildew. The trains shot by in the small gap between the house and the Hudson River, hooting loudly, making it impossible for Howard to ever get a good night’s sleep.
    The Harbinger boys had done wonders with the house. The windows had been replaced with smaller ones with thicker glass. There was no longer a smell of rot or mildew. They’d apparently used up some of their scrap wood, adding it to the inside wall that faced the railroad tracks as additional soundproofing. One train raced by while they’d been speaking and neither of them had had to raise their voices.
    ”This plan we’ve talked about isn’t in the petition,” Robert said. ”I wanted to keep it as simple as I could.” He went on to explain what had led him to take this on, describing the three old women pawing over other people’s mail, and one of them even suggesting that they destroy one letter for the recipient’s own good.
    Harry was shocked. ”Do you have a pen? I’ll sign it right now. Nobody should be able to destroy other folks’ letters or cards.”
    After he’d signed his name, he said, ”I’ll start drawing up some plans. I might do two or three and let whoever makes the decision choose.”
    ”Thanks, Harry. I have to get one or two more people to agree about the petition before I start collecting the rest of the signatures.”
    Robert went back to the train station and asked Mr. Buchanan, the train stationmaster, if they could speak privately.
    ”Nothing’s very private here. But there’s not a train for another twenty minutes. Let’s stand outside.”
    ”It’s about those women I saw pawing through everybody else’s letters and cards,” Robert said.
    Buchanan nodded. ”It’s disgraceful, isn’t it? Nosy old things.”
    ”Right,” Robert said, glad to hear that Buchanan agreed.
    He handed the petition to Buchanan, who looked it over and had questions. ”Who’s going to build it? Who’s going to sort it?” Are the drawers or boxes going to have a combination lock?”
    Robert paused before replying. ”I hadn’t thought of locks. I’ll tell the Harbinger boys to put hardware on and those who want to can buy a lock.”
    ”But lots of people don’t come in every day for their mail. Who will put the mail in the boxes without knowing the combination?”
    Robert was embarrassed to admit he hadn’t thought of