The bathhouse ledger

An original account written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

At the public baths I received a towel and a brass token stamped with the number seven. The attendant entered my payment in a ledger whose pages were swollen with steam. I had expected to undress behind a curtain, but each bather was given a small room with a bolt. For the first time that day I could put down my belongings without keeping one eye upon them. Outside, the queue advanced noisily; inside, the closed door gave me a little kingdom of quiet.

Give one phrase that suggests the narrator feels protected from noise inside the room.