- [Dick and Peggy are about to have a drink. Ellen enters, dressed in a trenchcoat and fedora, with an unlit cigarette dangling from her lip, acting the part of the tough moll. She is followed by her "gang," similarly garbed, consisting of her father, Ralph, and another man]
- Ellen Grant: [to her "boys"] Gimp! Louie! Fingers!
- [to Peggy]
- Ellen Grant: Musclin' in on my organization, huh? Hijackin' my key man. You're in a jam, sister!
- Dick Richmond: Listen, Ellen, I made a deal.
- Ellen Grant: [slaps him twice, knocking him over] Shut up, ya rat! So ya tried to shake me for this tahmata, huh?
- Peggy Donato: [to Dick, angry and upset] What is this? You said she was only a front!
- Ellen Grant: Just a front? So that's the pitch!
- Dick Richmond: [getting up off the floor] Please, Ellen, you'll only get hurt if they...
- [Ellen slaps him across the face hard several times]
- Ellen Grant: [menacingly] Are you tryin' to threaten me?
- [to Peggy]
- Ellen Grant: Look sister, you're leavin' here without this lug, or ya ain't leavin' at all.
- [shoves her onto the sofa]
- Ellen Grant: Now what's it gonna be?
- Peggy Donato: I paid fifty grand for him!
- Ellen Grant: OK, boys, reason with 'er!
- [they start toward Peggy]
- Peggy Donato: Wait a minute; that stuff went out years ago.
- Ellen Grant: Well I'm bringin' it back!
- Dick Richmond: Ellen, for heaven's sake...
- [she slaps him with the back of her hand, knocking him to the floor again]
- Ellen Grant: OK, boys, what're we waitin' for?
- Peggy Donato: No, no don't shoot. That's not the way to settle things. We'll have every cop in town after us.
- [Peggy's boys file in silently behind Ellen]
- Peggy Donato: After all, he's not the only key man in the business, there are lots of good operators.
- Ellen Grant: I thought you'd come around. They always do when the chips are down.
- Dick Richmond: [watching Peggy's boys approach] Ellen, you haven't got any chips.
- [she slaps him again]
- Ellen Grant: I'll get to you later.
- [to Peggy]
- Ellen Grant: And if you ever try to cross me again, you're gonna wind up with a lead girdle! Light me up, Gimp!
- [All four of Peggy's boys offer Ellen a light, and she finally realizes the worm has turned]
- Peggy Donato: The rod, Bright Eyes.
- [Ellen hands Peggy the "gun" she has had concealed in her pocket, which turns out to be the insides of a pencil sharpener]
- Ellen Grant: I didn't think they'd pour the cement so fast.
- Construction Foreman Roberts: Fast and hard, Miss Grant.
- Dick Richmond: Oh, we're just trying to make ends meet, down at the office.
- Peggy Donato: ...and succeeding, no doubt.
- Timothy P. Gleason: Mr Richmond, your new Secretary is here.
- Dick Richmond: Well, see what she needs in way of equipment.
- Timothy P. Gleason: Looks like she's got all the equipment she needs.
- Ellen Grant: Becoming a secretary may be the first rung on the ladder. There's no telling where it might lead. Why, the President of the United States started off in a haberdashery.
- Judge Ben Grant: Do you think he's any better off now?
- Timothy P. Gleason: All I can see is another mouth to keep padlocked.
- Dick Richmond: How can she talk - she won't see anything. And if she did see anything, she wouldn't understand it. And if she understood it, who'd believe a dame like that? It's a perfect set-up - we got beauty in the fron office and brains in the back office.
- Dick Richmond: Will you forget about this dame - she was the dumbest one in the whole school!
- Timothy P. Gleason: So's my wife but I'm still payin' her alimony!