The shuttered assembly room

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

The assembly room was ready for the concert. Candles stood in rows beside the musicians’ chairs, and the doors to the street had been folded back for the arriving audience. Mr Porter, the organiser, checked the ticket box and praised the clear evening. Then a boy came from the next street to say that a house there had caught fire. People at the doorway turned to look, though nothing was yet visible beyond the roofs.

Mr Porter asked the musicians to begin. A familiar tune would settle the room, he said. The violinist lifted his bow but did not play. He asked whether the fire engine had arrived. Nobody knew. From outside came the uneven sound of running feet. A woman near the ticket box said her sister lived in the affected street. Mr Porter told her she could leave quietly without disturbing the others.

The violinist lowered his bow. He asked the audience whether anybody could carry water or help clear the lane. Several people rose. Mr Porter stood in front of the open doors, explaining that the concert had been advertised and that cancelling it would disappoint everyone who had paid. Beyond him, the woman was already pulling a chair aside to make a wider passage. The first smell of smoke entered the room.

The musicians began carrying their instruments away from the windows. Mr Porter finally opened the side store and brought out the buckets kept for washing the floor. He handed them to the departing men without speaking. By the time the last candle was extinguished, the room was almost empty. The ticket box remained on its table. He shut it and followed the others into the street.

“Mr Porter’s concern for the concert is shown as increasingly inadequate to the situation.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this idea. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.