'When it is the only Jewish shop! Are you aware, sir, that every other Jew in Sudminster closes rigorously on the Sabbath?'
'I ascertained that before I settled here,' said Simeon Samuels quietly.
XI
The report of the pastor's collapse produced an emergency meeting of the leading sheep. The mid-day dinner-hour was chosen as the slackest. A babble of suggestions filled the Parnass's parlour. Solomon Barzinsky kept sternly repeating his Delenda est Carthago: 'He must be expelled from the congregation.'
'He should be expelled from the town altogether,' said Mendel. 'As it is written: "And remove Satan from before and behind us."'
'Since when have we owned Sudminster?' sneered the Parnass. 'You might as well talk of expelling the Mayor and the Corporation.'
'I didn't mean by Act of Parliament,' said Mendel. 'We could make his life a torture.'
'And meantime he makes yours a torture. No, no, the only way is to appeal to his soul——'
'May it be an atonement for us all!' interrupted Peleg the pawnbroker.
'We must beg him not to destroy religion,' repeated the Parnass.