Who's sorry now?

Harry Harbinger. And I ran into Mrs. White, who asked about it after signing, and she suggested Susan Gasset. By the way, is that ladies’ group still going on?”
    ”The Voorburg Ladies’ League? Yes, but it doesn’t meet as often as it used to. Mrs. White had to give up the idea of the trading truck going around to houses. It was too complicated to compute what equaled what else. Especially for foods that got old fast. We only meet every other month now and make things for the poor. Blankets, quilts, winter gloves, and two in the group are experts at knitting woolen socks for every size. It’s a bit hard to get excited about it in nice weather like this. But by winter we’ll have a good supply.”
    ”I must go,” Robert said, consulting his watch. ”My appointment is at ten and I want to be early.”
    At dinner that night, Robert bragged, deservedly, on his coup. ”First, I told the treasurer why I’d become interested in this. About the old ladies going through other people’s mail and speculating if one person’s mail should be destroyed before she saw it. The treasurer was appalled.”
    ”So he should have been,” Mrs. Tarkington said. ”Then he started asking me questions about what it would cost and what percentage of the profits should be returned to the town council—if any. I thought that remark boded well. I never expected he’d not automatically demand reimbursement.”
    ”Maybe he feels that the town council is truly responsible for the welfare of Voorburg residents,” Lily said.
    ”He’d fund the grade school more generously if he felt that way,” Mrs. Tarkington said. ”We’re teaching with old books that we keep having to paste back together. They’re all out of date.”
    ”Then you take up a petition, too,” Robert said.
    ”I may do so. It seems to have worked with you,” Mrs. Tarkington said, realizing too late that she’d offended him.
    Mrs. Prinney spoke up. ”What’s the next step, Robert?”
    ”The treasurer is calling a special meeting of the whole council tomorrow. He wants me there to explain to them what I told him.”
    ”Doesn’t anybody else get to help make the decision?” Howard Walker asked. ”Shouldn’t there be some sort of public meeting? After all, the town council receives the money they can dispense from public taxes.”
    ”I don’t know,” Robert admitted. ”We didn’t talk about that. You may be right. I’ll make a note to myself to ask that tomorrow.”
    Robert had one more piece of information to find before the meeting. He went to locate Harry Harbinger to find out what Harry and his brother Jim would charge to construct the boxes, what the hardware would cost, including their fee for putting it on.
    ”I’ve been thinking about this. We’re talking two hundred boxes, tops. The labor for it I’d estimate at a week, plus another day or two to get the hardware and the sorting table inside installed. I’d need the cost for the hardware to be paid in advance. I’d estimate thirty dollars for labor and ten for the hardware, maybe five for the sorting table, door lock, and labor. If it’s less, I’d settle on the actual cost.”
    ”That sounds reasonable to me,” Robert said. ”It’s a lot of work.”
    He wrote it down in the notebook he’d bought. Ten up front for hardware. Thirty for labor, five for the table, door, and lock.
    Robert was early for the meeting. It was held at the dining room table in the treasurer’s house. The treasurer, Peter Winchel, a man who was at least fifty and had a very deep voice, was already at the head of the table, going over the notes he’d made of their earlier conversation. And other questions and suggestions he thought of and anticipated.
    ”You’re a bit early, Mr. Brewster. It’s good that you are. Are you prepared to tell us the cost of building the sorting area?”
    ”I am, sir.”
    ”And the estimated time it will take?”
    ”Yes.”
    ”Another thing I want to bring up,” Winchel said, ”is what to call it. I don’t think we can call it a post office. The real postal system wouldn’t like it. So we’ll need to talk about a different title for this project, if the rest of the council approves it.”
    ”I’ll give this some thought. Do you think it’s going to be approved?”
    ”I’m fairly certain it will. I want you to be ready to tell what you saw and heard that made you bring this to our attention. The women going through everyone’s mail and don’t forget to