She had something else to do.

She made efforts to listen with interest to the dilatory gossip of Suzanne, who spoke of her home, and of the trivialities of her monotonous life.

This relieved Therese of her own thoughts.

Sometimes she caught herself paying attention to nonsense that brought a bitter smile to her face.
By degrees, she lost all her customers.

Since her aunt had been confined to her armchair upstairs, she had let the shop go from bad to worse, abandoning the goods to dust and damp.