The technique that Irving used to build suspense in the excerpt is this:
The pace of a story refers to the speed at which the events in the story occur. From the descriptions in the text, it can be seen that the activities moved in a very fast way.
The manner in which the narrator wore her clothes, ran downstairs and tumbled some furniture demonstrates a hastening of events and this causes a measure of suspense.
Learn more about the pace of a story here:
https://brainly.com/question/25966692
#SPJ1