Arabesque—The Mouse by A. E. Coppard.

Filip, a middle-aged man, sits in his room on the fourth floor of an old house in the commercial area of a city. He is reading a Russian novel, as is his late-evening habit. After becoming aware of a small mouse scurrying about the room, he baits a trap to catch it. There are many mice in the building; he knows he must try to eradicate them but feels pity for the bright-eyed rodent. He says, "Mean—so mean, to appeal to the hunger of any living thing just in order to destroy it." This sentence becomes a key to the flashbacks that follow.