Then presently my ear, alert to every sound, could just distinguish far away across the fens the striking of a church bell, in the clock tower of Buggam village church, no doubt, tolling the hour of twelve.
On the last stroke of twelve, the cupboard door in the next room opened.
There is no need to ask me how I knew it.

I couldn't, of course, see it, but I could hear, or sense in some way, the sound of it.

I could feel my hair, all of it, rising upon my head.

I was aware that there was a _presence_ in the adjoining room, I will not say a person, a living soul, but a _presence_.

Anyone who has been in the next room to a presence will know just how I felt.