In the corner beyond he saw nobody, but when he came to look along the end connecting the opposite rooms with those on his side, a different scene awaited him.  There every bench seemed occupied both back and front, and mostly by newcomers, as was apparent from the anxious way the superintendent moved about among them, explaining the work and directing them with a zeal which not only attested his interest in the task but showed how completely he had forgotten the man he had left behind him in his office.  Well, well, such is the way of the world!  The old man saw that he would have to depend upon himself, and realizing this, bent all his energies to his present far-off inspection of these women, hoping against hope that he would be able at least to tell the young from the old.

Yes, he could do that, but the older women seemed to be in the majority; and this perplexed him.  It was all too distant for him to see clearly, but he took heart of grace as he observed how the faces and figures he was studying so closely were resolving themselves into mere silhouettes under his gaze.  For as I have already said, he had a quick eye for outline, and felt sure that he could sufficiently recall that of the woman whose head and shoulders had been so long under his eye that day, to recognize it even among fifty others.  But not one of them—­not one of them all—­had the precise narrowness and rigidity of Madame Duclos’; and after many painful minutes of renewed effort followed by renewed disappointment he moved back from the window and sat down.  There was one thing you could always count on in Mr. Gryce, and that was his patience.

But it was a patience not without its breaks.  Once he rose to look out front to make sure he had not miscalculated the distance of this factory from the river.  Then after another period of waiting, he got thinking how much he might discover if he could get one glimpse into that far corner contiguous to that end of the rectangle where he had seen so many raw workers receiving the assistance of the night superintendent.  There was a way of doing this of which he had not thought before.  He had but to step outside, walk the length of the platform where the loading of shipments was going on, and look in at one of the great windows at the further end.  But when he came to make the attempt, he found himself plunged into such a turmoil and the way so blocked by the loading of boxes and the backing up and driving off of horses that he retreated precipitately.  Rather than encounter all this, he would await events from the inside.  So he took his old seat again and for another half-hour listened to the thump of machinery and the squeak of a rusty elevator-brake which almost robbed him of thought.  He was even inclined to doze, when he suddenly became aware of some change either in himself or in what lay about him.

Had the machinery stopped?  No, it was not that.

The place seemed darker, yet it was still very light.