Tolman Bike was also the name of the employer of Lucille and Maggie Williams and Dido Morgan.
Tolman Bike, Miss Chamberlain’s fianceé, was the proprietor of a downtown factory, so it must be one and the same man.
Well, and if so, could it be possible that Tolman Bike, the man who was engaged to marry a banker’s daughter, could have been in love with Lucille Williams, a poor stenographer, and persuaded her to leave her home for him?
Richard was a young man, and the idea was not a surprising one to him. According to what he could learn, the dark-haired stenographer was fond of the things she could little afford to possess, and it was likely that her employer, knowing her desires, made it possible for her to gratify them.
Now that he was to marry, he would not be likely to hold out any inducement for the girl to stay with him, and if they should happen across her now it was possible that she would gladly return to the humble home of her sister.
Still, supposing Tolman Bike had found no attraction for him in the stenographer? It was a very delicate thing to handle, considering that Richard’s knowledge was mostly supposition.
“Do you think that Maggie’s sister really worked those nights she was away from home?” Dick asked Dido.
“She always brought extra money home, which proved she did,” Dido replied positively.
“Did she ever talk about Tolman Bike?”
“Never, except when she mentioned that he had dictated more work than usual, or something of that kind.”