How It All Goes Down
The story takes place in a hotel on the Italian coast on a rainy day. We are introduced to an American couple waiting out the rain in their room above the town square. He is reading. She is looking out the window. The wife spots a cat outside, huddling under a table in the rain, and decides to go out to rescue it. Her husband, with no great concern, tells her not to get wet and goes back to his reading.
Downstairs, the owner or "padrone" of the hotel bows to the wife and Hemingway lingers for a moment on all the reasons why the wife likes him so much. She goes outside, followed by the maid with an umbrella, but doesn't find the cat and returns to her room. The husband, George, is still reading as the wife sits down before her mirror and starts listing the array of things she wants and wants to change. Frustrated, George quickly tells her to "shut up" and returns to his book. The wife complains that if she can't have any of the other things on her list, she at least wants a cat.
Just then, there's a knock at the door. It's the hotel maid, holding a large cat—a gift for the "Signora," she tells them, from the padrone.