to go to the library. Daniel Buchanan enters, jittery; he is nervous because his wife is upstairs about to have a baby. He and the women sing of the perils of childbirth in a short arietta, "When a Woman Has a Baby". Just as he runs upstairs to tend to his wife, Mrs. Maurrant's husband Frank comes home. He mentions that he is going on a business trip to New Haven tomorrow, and argues with his wife about Rose not being home yet ("She Shouldn't Be Staying out Nights"). Fuming, he storms into the house, just as George Jones returns home from work and chats with the ladies for a while. Anna Maurrant sings an aria about the importance of putting your faith in a brighter tomorrow ("Somehow I Never Could Believe"). Steve Sankey enters and a tense scene ensues between him and the suspecting women. Almost immediately after he departs, Mrs. Maurrant heads off in the same direction, under the guise of going to look for her son. Mr. Jones, Mr. Olsen, Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Fiorentino sing more about the scandal ("Whatcha Think of That"). Mrs. Olsen runs in excited and says that she has just seen Sankey and Mrs. Maurrant standing close together around the back of a local warehouse. Lippo Fiorentino returns home from work with an armful of ice cream cones for everybody. The two Fiorentinos, the two Olsens, Mr. Jones and Henry Davis sing a jubilant sextet praising ice cream ("Ice Cream Sextet"). Maurrant has been watching, and when his wife comes back he questions her about where she has been. She tells him she has been looking for Willie, and Maurrant and Abraham Kaplan argue about parenting, and later economics. Kaplan uses the example of the Hildebrand family who live upstairs, who are run by a struggling single mother who is unable to pay the rent, to illustrate his point. Maurrant and Kaplan's argument almost becomes physical, but the neighbors and Kaplan's granddaughter Shirley hold the two men back. Maurrant sings about how he longs for a return to traditional moral values in "Let Things Be Like they Always Was". Immediately after, Jennie Hildebrand and other high-school girls enter the street coming home from their graduation ceremony. The ensemble sings a jubilant celebration number, "Wrapped in a Ribbon and Tied in a Bow". Steve Sankey's entrance causes an abrupt end to the celebrations.