The waiting room

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

The handle would not turn. Clara tried it gently, then with both hands, ashamed that the empty waiting room should witness such a struggle. On the other side of the glass the last porter crossed the platform. She tapped. His lantern moved steadily away. She struck the pane with her knuckles, but a departing engine swallowed the sound and carried it down the line.

When the train had gone, the silence seemed larger than the room. Every bench faced the locked door. Even the clock, which had spent the evening hurrying her, now offered no assistance: its thin hands advanced with maddening leisure. Clara searched her bag for the stationmaster’s note, unfolded it, and read the instruction she had followed so exactly: “Wait here.” Beneath those two words, in smaller writing, was a second line. She moved the paper towards the lamp. “Until the porter calls.” From somewhere beyond the wall came three measured knocks.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to show Clara’s growing unease. Support your answer with references to the passage.