here, here is an objection; this precious plan of yours, parents and
others could work it for themselves. I dare say they do. When they see
the affections of a son, or a daughter, or a bereaved father beginning to
stray towards A., they probably invite B. to come and stay and act as a
lightning conductor. They don't need us.'

'Oh, don't they? They seldom have an eligible and satisfactory lightning
conductor at hand, somebody to whom they can trust their dear one. Or,
if they have, the dear one has already been bored with the intended
lightning conductor (who is old, or plain, or stupid, or familiar, at
best), and they won't look at him or her. Now our Disentanglers are not
going to be plain, or dull, or old, or stale, or commonplace--we'll take
care of that. My dear fellow, don't you know how dismal the _parti_
selected for a man or girl invariably is? Now _we_ provide a different
and superior article, a _fresh_ article too, not a familiar bore or a
neighbour.'

'Well, there is a good deal in that, as you say,' Logan admitted. 'But
decent people will think the whole speculation shady. How are you to get
round that? There is something you have forgotten.'

'What?' Merton asked.

'Why it stares you in the face. References. Unexceptionable references;
people will expect them all round.'

'Please don't say "unexceptionable"; say "references beyond the reach of
cavil."' Merton was a purist. 'It costs more in advertisements, but my
phrase at once enlists the sympathy of every liberal and elegant mind.
But as to references (and I am glad that you have some common sense,