The narrator's comments about the children near the end of the passage the divulge all of the following about Altlaf EXCEPT his

The answer is symbolism . 

What u have here is a dangling do not have a subject that goes with ur verb. you do not have a " doer " for the actionhaving read the children a bedtime story, the house was shut down for the night.  so who read the children the story ? it wasn't the house. so we have to add a doer of the action to revise this sentence.having read the children a bedtime story, jill shut the house down for the night. < == this is the revised sentence.