Outside the magistrate’s room

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Mr Cole had been told to wait while the magistrate examined his papers. In the antechamber, a clock clicked steadily above rows of empty chairs. He attempted to study a notice on the wall, but returned again and again to the same line without understanding it. His fingers worried the brim of his hat until the felt bent out of shape. When the inner door finally opened, he looked up at once.

Identify one phrase which suggests that Mr Cole is anxious about what the magistrate will decide.