Short Fiction · Chapter
The Exact Science of Matrimony explained
Jeff Peters recounts a matrimonial agency scheme he ran with Andy Tucker in Cairo, Illinois.
What happens
Jeff Peters recounts a matrimonial agency scheme he ran with Andy Tucker in Cairo, Illinois. They advertised a charming widow with $3,000 and property, using Mrs. Trotter as the bait. Suitors paid $2 to have their letters forwarded, netting over $5,000 in three months. When Mrs. Trotter falls in love with a suitor, William Wilkinson, who demands the $2,000, Andy reluctantly agrees to let her have it. The story ends with Jeff and Andy leaving town.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Appearance vs. Reality
The entire scheme is built on a false advertisement of a charming widow, exploiting the hopes of lonely men for profit.
Love and Romance
Mrs. Trotter genuinely falls in love with a suitor, complicating the fraudulent scheme and leading to a sentimental resolution.
Crime and Consequence
The matrimonial agency is a con game, but the partners avoid legal trouble by ensuring the 'product' is real and by bribing officials.
Characters to notice
- Jeff Peters
Narrator and co-conspirator in the matrimonial agency scheme; he recruits Mrs. Trotter and handles correspondence.
- Andy Donovan
Jeff's partner in the scheme; initially skeptical about involving a real widow, but agrees to let Mrs. Trotter keep the $2,000.
- Mrs. Conant
Mrs. Trotter, the widow hired to pose as the charming widow in the advertisement; she falls in love with a suitor.
Key passages
“As I have told you before, I never had much confidence in the perfidiousness of woman. As partners or coeducators in the most innocent line of graft they are not trustworthy.”
Jeff Peters says he has always doubted women's reliability in dishonest schemes.
Jeff expresses his distrust of women as partners in crime.
“When you've got enough advertising capital—say a roll as big as the little end of a wagon tongue—there's money in matrimonial agencies.”
With sufficient advertising funds, a matrimonial agency can be very profitable.
Jeff explains the financial potential of the scheme.
“I never knew there was so many large hearted but indigent men in the country who were willing to acquire a charming widow and assume the burden of investing her money.”
Jeff is surprised by the number of poor but hopeful men who responded to the ad.
Jeff reflects on the volume of responses from men seeking the widow.
“You can't trust a woman to stick by you in any scheme that involves her emotions and preferences.”
Andy says women are unreliable when their feelings are involved.
Andy's skepticism about women's loyalty in business.