“She’s stealing from us!” said Blanche, who had developed a fine sense of her duty towards and interest in the community.
“Oh, yes! you’re quite right,” said Thrale. “I’ll inform the committee—at least, the non-Jenkynites.”
The five non-Jenkynites were furious.
“We must make an example,” Elsie Durham said. “It isn’t that we shall miss what the Isaacson woman has taken—or will take. It’s the question of precedent. This is where we are facing the beginning of law—isn’t it? Somebody has to protect the members of the community against themselves. If one steals and goes unpunished, another will steal. We shall have the women divided into stealers and workers.”
“What are you going to do with her?” asked Thrale.
“Turn her out,” replied Elsie Durham.
“The Jenkynites won’t let her go,” said Thrale raising the larger question.
“We shall see,” said Elsie Durham, “But that reminds me that we must catch the woman flagrante delicto; we must have no quibbles about the facts.”
Thrale agreed with the wisdom of this policy, but refused to take any part in either the detection or the prosecution of Mrs Isaacson. “They’ll say its a put-up job if I have anything to do with it,” he argued.