Who's sorry now?

mention the woman who said that someone else’s letter should be destroyed for her own good. Don’t name names, of course.”
    ”I don’t know their names anyway.”
    The other four members were prompt. A Mr. Horsely was the secretary and opened his notebook, and laid out a pen and inkwell. He was a thin, scholarly-looking man, probably in his forties. Next was a big, scowling man who looked a bit like a bulldog, with a projecting lower jaw and mottled red, freckled flesh pushed up by his tight collar. He was introduced as Arnold Wood. ”What’s this all about?” he barked as he took his place at the table.
    The treasurer said patiently, `All will be explained when the rest are here, Arnold.”
    The other two joined them the next moment. Men in their fifties wearing rather shabby clothes, but pleasant expressions. Robert learned these were Todd Taylor and Jake Wilson, who had a cobbler’s shop in town.
    ”Gentlemen, this is Mr. Robert Brewster, who lives up on the hill at Grace and Favor. You may already know him.”
    ”The boy who drives the fancy big yellow car all over the place.” Arnold Wood sneered.
    Boy? Robert thought, but kept his face from showing his irritation.
    The treasurer ignored this remark, and proceeded. ”Mr. Brewster and Mr. Buchanan observed something going on at the train station that they’ve reported to me that needs attention. I’ll turn this over to Mr. Brewster to explain.”
    Robert stood up. He felt he’d have a better presence that way. He told, briefly and unemotionally, about the three women going through everyone else’s mail, which was in sacks on the floor, and making personal comments, including one about a certain woman in town. She had received a letter with a return address; they thought the letter shouldn’t be delivered because it was from someone they didn’t approve of. They had debated destroying it. At that point, Robert was called away to the train that was arriving with a package for him. ”I don’t know if they destroyed it or not,” he said in an effort to be fair.
    There was silence except for an audible gasp from one of the cobblers.
    The other cobbler said, ”That’s horrible. What can we do about it? I don’t have any guilty correspondence, but I wouldn’t want to have three old bats pawing over my mail!”
    ”Nobody would,” the secretary said, as he was writing down what Robert had reported. ”May I ask a question?” The treasurer nodded.
    ”Does this happen regularly?”
    ”I’ve only observed it once. But the stationmaster, Mr. Buchanan, says they do it almost every day. You can check this with him, if you wish.”
    The treasurer said, ”Mr. Brewster figured out how much this would cost and has a floor plan to show you. He’s also consulted with local workers, Harry and Jim Harbinger, about the cost. I’ll let you explain this, Mr. Brewster.”
    Robert did so. He passed around copies of the plan, showing the area behind the boxes, the worktable, and the locked door. ”The station, as you know, is enormous. It won’t crowd the seating area or the booking area. The boxes will be open at the back and customers will pay for their own locks. The hardware to attach these locks is included in the bid from the Harbingers.”
    Everyone agreed that it was not only a good idea, but a reasonable price.
    Mr. Horsely asked, ”How long would it take?”
    ”The Harbingers say two to three weeks. Closer to two. But they want to allow for three,” Robert informed them.
    ”Now, there’s a question or two I have,” the treasurer said. ”Mr. Brewster and I already touched on this. We can’t call it a post office. We need to think up another name.
    ”Letter and Package Center?” Mr. Horsely suggested. There were nods to this and a vote was taken. Only Arnold Wood abstained from voting.
    ”The second thing is this,” the treasurer went on. ”Mr. Brewster has what I consider a somewhat elaborate plan for paying the person who does the sorting. I won’t bother you with the details. My suggestion is we decide how much work this job will entail, how many hours it will take, and what would be a fair amount of financial reimbursement for whoever does the work. In return, I’d recommend that a very small percentage of the cost to the customers to rent the boxes, and for the lottery tickets to acquire a box, be reimbursed at five percent up front, but only for long enough to cover our initial investment, then the annual cost of the box