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that.”
    William and Robert exchanged another of their glances.
    “All right,” William said. “Can we meet tomorrow?”
    “I’ll come to your offices,” Roper said, cutting into his steak again. “This steak is excellent.”
    “Yes,” Robert agreed, “the steaks are very good here.”
    “Very well,” William said, “we’ll see you at the office tomorrow…morning?”
    “Sure, why not?” Roper asked. “Let’s say in the morning.”
    “Very good,” William said.
    “After breakfast.”
    “Yes.”
    They fell into an awkward silence as they began to eat in earnest. Roper decided to keep them talking to him, even if they really didn’t want to.
    “So how do you boys figure to divvy up the agency?” he asked.
    They both looked up from their plates and William said, “Oh, probably as we have it. I will stay here in Chicago, and Robert will handle the San Francisco office.”
    “Any thoughts of expansion?” Roper asked. “New York? Denver?”
    “To expand,” Robert said, “we would have to have someone we trusted to run those offices.”
    “And you don’t?”
    “Not yet,” William said.
    Roper studied the brothers while they ate. They answeredwhatever question he posed, but did not instigate any conversation of their own. Roper knew that Allan had had a high opinion of his abilities. He probably had not, as Dol had proposed, any intention of turning the agency over to him, but he was sure the boys had heard enough about him from the old man to resent him. It must have been killing them to ask him for his help.
    He pondered the question while they ate. He wondered if their big money clients had perhaps mentioned the possibility of hiring him instead of them. Maybe this was a last-ditch effort to actually get the job? By promising that he would be involved. Or maybe Talbot Roper was starting to have an exaggerated opinion of his own worth. Of course, it would be nice if that was the case.
    “What about women?” he asked suddenly.
    “What?” Robert asked.
    “I’m sorry?” William asked.
    “Female operatives,” Roper said. “How many do you have?”
    “Uh, a few,” William said.
    “None in my office,” Robert said. “It’s no place for a woman.”
    “Hmm,” Roper said, “maybe William doesn’t agree. Or was it Allan who hired the women that you do have?”
    “I, uh, have an open mind,” William said. “There might be some assignments that would be more suited to a woman’s talents.”
    “Hmph,” Robert said.
    Roper wondered if this question had been a bone of contention between the boys and their father? Maybe Dol would have the answer to that.
    Roper decided to leave the boys alone and enjoy his own dinner.
    *   *   *
    After dinner the three of them left the restaurant and stopped outside for the doorman to hail them a cab. William and Robert were sharing one.
    “How is your family taking it?” Roper asked.
    “Cecily is not doing well,” William said.
    “We are handling it,” Robert assured Roper. “Our father would not want us to let the business suffer.”
    “I’m sure,” Roper said.
    “Where are you staying?” William asked.
    “The Allerton.”
    “Second rate,” Robert opined. “I prefer the Drake.”
    “I like the Allerton,” Roper said.
    Robert shrugged and said, “To each his own.”
    He watched the two brothers load into a cab, and then William turned and said to him, “See you in the morning.”
    Roper nodded and the cab drove away.
    “Cab, sir?” the doorman asked.
    It was July in Chicago but it felt more like spring.
    “No thanks,” he said, “I think I’ll walk.”

7
    Roper tried to read that night—another Twain, this one
Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches
, a short story collection—but he couldn’t keep his mind on it. There was something else going on with the Pinkerton brothers. He was sure of that, or they wouldn’t be asking for his help. Before he agreed to do this for them, he was going to have to get that out