The waiting applicant

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Thomas sat outside the town council clerk’s office with his application folded across his knee. “I am perfectly ready,” he told the porter, although the porter had asked him nothing. He smoothed the brim of his hat, then smoothed it again. Whenever voices rose behind the closed door, his fingers tightened around the paper until its stiff edge pressed into his skin. As footsteps approached, he released it and arranged his face into a calm expression.

At last, the door opened and a clerk called his name. Thomas stood so suddenly that his chair scraped across the floor. Everyone in the corridor looked towards him. He gave a brief laugh, as if the noise had been deliberate, and walked forward. At the threshold, however, he stopped. The corridor behind him seemed wide and bright; the room ahead appeared narrow and dim. He put the application into his pocket and entered before he could give himself another moment to hesitate.

Analyse the writer’s use of language and structure to present Thomas’s attempts to hide his nervousness.

In your answer, you should consider:

• the contrast between what Thomas says and what his body reveals
• how the focus changes after his name is called.

Support your answer with references to the passage.