Grogan loves betting on horse-races, a hobby bordering on addiction that leaves him with very little money on which to live. Luckily for him, his landlady Mrs. Benoit is a patient woman, and she allows his debt to rack up without protest. Besides, all of Grogan's acquaintances describe him as an honest man and are certain that he will always pay off his debts. One day, he comes back from a trip to Mexico that has deeply changed him, and he pays off some of what he owes. After that, he cuts down on his betting and is able to pay off every cent he owes. The idea of 'saving' money is new to him, so he begins treating Mrs. Benoit as his own bank: he makes bets in his mind without actually calling his bookie, and whatever he 'wins,' he treats as a good call and gives it to Mrs. Benoit for 'future rent.' She bears all of his eccentricities with good humor, a trait that is beneficial to the other tenants because they have equally peculiar habits. Clancy is an "Irish gigolo" who uses various fake names to dupe wealthy old ladies out of their money, while Mallan is an aging drunk who purchases the daily newspaper at 4 AM and reads it out loud to the entire household in the dead of night. At length, a reformed Grogan has 'saved' upwards of a thousand dollars, and he wants to use it someday to return to Mexico and be with the people he met last time as a rich man rather than a poor one. Mrs. Benoit then receives a call from the bank offering to lower the mortgage on her rooming house from nineteen thousand dollars to twelve thousand if she would only make a deposit of two thousand, a strange offer that can only be explained by wartime economic crises. She curses the fact that she has only a thousand saved up - but Grogan quickly offers up his own thousand dollars to add to her own. She refuses, reminding him that he wanted to use this money for his trip to Mexico, but he insists. Later, Clancy implies that Grogan took this 'deal' because he saw the seven-for-two odds and couldn't resist taking the bet - signifying that he was still ruled by his gambling addiction. Grogan is enraged by this accusation, but his denial of it rings hollow. Ironically, it is Clancy, the professional liar and deceiver, who shows Grogan a truth that he does not wish to see.