There was no one in the latter room at present, the president seldom showing up at night.

Another door led to the platform outside, and a third one, located in the middle of the right-hand partition, to a large vestibule or locker-room belonging exclusively to the girls, which in its turn communicated with the work-rooms of the factory running in unbroken continuity around a narrow central court.
He had been through this locker-room in the late afternoon.

It was here he had stood to watch the girls file out at the close of their day's work.

The exit for all employees was in one of the corners and out of this Antoinette Duclos would have to pass when it came her turn to leave the building--that is, if she were really in it, as he had every reason to believe.
However, certainty on this point would relieve him from much of his present impatience, and with this end in view he prepared to enter the room again in the hope of spying among the various hats with which the walls were hung the one with whose shape and trimming he was so well acquainted.
But promising as this attempt looked, it was destined to immediate failure.

The room was not empty.