'Oh, indeed! So this is your gratitude. Very well. Either Simeon Samuels shuts up shop or you do. That's final. Don't forget you were only elected for three years.' And the little man flung out.
The Parnass, meeting his minister later in the street, took a similar view.
'You really must preach again next Sabbath,' he said. 'The congregation is terribly wrought up. There may even be a riot. If Simeon Samuels keeps open next Sabbath, I can't answer that they won't go and break his windows.'
'Then they will break the Sabbath.'
'Oh, they may wait till the Sabbath is out.'
'They'll be too busy opening their own shops.'
'Don't argue. You must preach his shop shut.'
'Very well,' said the Reverend Gabriel sullenly.
'That's right. A man with a family must rise to great occasions. Do you think I'd be where I am now if I hadn't had the courage to buy a bankrupt stock that I didn't see my way to paying for? It's a fight between you and Simeon Samuels.'
'May his name be blotted out!' impatiently cried the minister in the Hebrew imprecation.