He rose to his feet and stood listening and the bell rang again.

He switched off the light, pulled aside the thick curtain which hid the window, and peered out through the fog.

He could just distinguish in the light of the street lamp two or three men standing at the gate.

He replaced the curtain, turned up the light again, took the books in his arms and disappeared with them into the corridor.

The room at the back was his bedroom, and into this he went, making no response to the repeated jingle of the bell for fully five minutes.
At the end of that time he reappeared, but now he was in his pyjamas, over which he wore a heavy dressing-gown.