Who's sorry now?

should be set by us, and the sorter pay us the same percent as a town tax on the property.”
    Again, the group agreed and voted. This time Arnold Wood voted with the rest of them.
    ”One more question, Mr. Brewster,” the treasurer asked. ”Who’s going to do this?”
    Robert smiled and said, ”Chief Walker suggested that I do it, because I started this, but I don’t need the job right now—”
    Arnold Wood butted in. ”Chief Walker! The man’s an incompetent. Why, he doesn’t even know yet who killed that man McBride. We need a new chief of police. He’s always slow on the job.”
    Robert couldn’t resist this jab. ”That’s probably because he always waits until he has proof of who committed the crime instead of just accusing someone.”
    ”Sure, you’d say that. He lives in luxury, I hear, at your mansion. Great pal of yours. Do you know who he suspects?”
    ”We don’t discuss his job over the dinner table, sir,” Robert snapped. ”He’s a boarder just like the milliner and the principal of the grade school and we don’t question them about their jobs. It’s none of our business, or yours, for that matter.” Robert turned to the treasurer and said, ”To get back to the subject at hand, I thought about asking Mrs. Susan Gasset if she’d like to take the job. She’s the cashier now at the movie theater, and it’s a long hard day for which she’s probably paid a pittance, and her children seldom see her. Her sister takes care of them. This would be a day job while the children are in school. I haven’t approached her yet, and would prefer to get her opinion before we decide.”
    ”A girl doing a job that should go to a man?” Arnold Wood shouted.
    Robert said, ”Mr. Wood, do you have any idea how many men have run off and left their wives to cook and take care of the kids? How many women have done that? None that I know of.”
    ”Arnold, shut up,” the treasurer said, standing up, red in the face. ”Mr. Brewster is right. In my experience women are smarter and harder working than men anyway. Furthermore, none of them here in town have run out on their families like so many men in town have done. You are the rudest man I’ve ever known. I’ll accept your resignation, if you’d care to submit it. Meeting adjourned until Mr. Brewster talks to Mrs. Gasset.”
    Everyone fled the meeting as quickly as they could, leaving Arnold behind.
    ”Bastards. All of you,” Arnold shouted.
     

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
     
    ROBERT’S NEXT STOP after the meeting concluded was the train station. ”Mr. Buchanan, could you tell me how many mail trains come in on any given day?”
    ”Three.One at seven-thirty in the morning. That’s the biggest since most of the mail comes from New York City overnight. Normally three bags. Then the noon one is usually two bags. The last one of the day is at four and it’s almost always one bag. But there is no delivery on Sunday at all. So each Monday morning is commonly four bags.”
    ”That’s interesting. I wouldn’t have guessed. How big are these bags?”
    Mr. Buchanan brought one out of his office to show Robert.
    ”I thought they’d be huge. But they’re not. Thanks for the information.”
    When he returned to Grace and Favor, Robert called Susan Gasset’s house, introduced himself again because they’d talked the day before when she signed the petition, and asked if she’d be interested in a new job.
    ”Am I ever!” she exclaimed.
    ”Could I spin by your house and have a talk with you this afternoon?”
    ”Come to the theater. There’s a matinee today. I have to be there at one. By one forty-five I’m free, but have to be back in the booth at quarter of four for the four o’clock people, and then for the eight o’clock showing.”
    ”You have to just hang out there the whole time between movies?”
    ”I have to total up the tickets and match it to the money. It takes me a half hour at least and more if it’s a big crowd.”
    ”Do you go home between?”
    ”Sometimes I do. When one of the kids is sick and out of school. I don’t want to put my sister to more trouble than I have to.”
    ”We’ll talk about this on one of your free times today. Okay?”
    ”That’s fine. Nobody’s sick today,” she said with a laugh. ”How about two in the afternoon?”
    While Robert waited around to meet with Mrs. Gasset, he stopped by the jail.
    Howard said, ”What now?”
    ”Do you know there’s a nasty man on the town council who wants you