Explore "The Old Wives' Tale" by Arnold Bennett on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On Thursday afternoon of the same week the youth whom Constance had ended by hiring for the manipulation of shutters and other jobs unsuitable for fragile women, was closing the shop. The clock had struck two. All the shutters were up except the last one, in the midst of the doorway. Miss Insull and her mistress were walking about the darkened interior, putting dust sheets well over the edges of exposed goods; the other assistants had just left. The bull-terrier had wandered into the shop as he almost invariably did at closing time -- for he slept there, an efficient guard -- and had lain down by the dying stove; though not venerable, he was stiffening into age.
"You can shut," said Miss Insull to the youth.