Peggy and Greta were told all this by Dorrit, the paid manager, on the first day they worked at the shop, and they understood it to be true. They’d thought a lot about working at the shop during the week they had to wait before they started. They imagined themselves working there: first as the person who didn’t know what to do, then as a person who perhaps ran the shop, and then as a person who ran several shops, who maybe had a job at another shop like Heidi and Dell did. But, as Dorrit showed them around and explained the job, their ideas about how they would progress disappeared and, instead, they were pretty sure they would steal the money, or wreck the shop, or one day get drunk and break in so they had somewhere to sleep. Before this happened, they were sure they would say something rude to someone or consistently put the oversized clothes in the wrong place or some undersized clothes in with the oversized clothes. There seemed very little possibility they would be there for anything like the time it took to get a paid job.

Eventually, Dorrit had told them everything they needed to know to work in the shop. When she asked if they had any questions, Peggy asked when lunch was.