Euler

Euler is the head of Clandestine Computer Services, a covert service that gives Peter Honorious access to the Political Factors Synthesizer and Simulator for a private preview of potential marriages. Short, balding, red-cheeked, and disarming, he presents an illicit operation in the manner of a genial expert: he explains how the State’s machinery can be turned to individual use, then arranges a terminal session. His intervention makes the prospect of marriage something Honorious can inspect before accepting it, while the appearance of Dinah Grebs among the candidates reveals the personal complication hidden inside that calculation.

Identity and Setting

Euler directs Clandestine Computer Services, which has temporarily installed itself in dusty offices in the derelict Lincoln Center area. The business conceals its purpose behind the name Used Softwear Jobbers, Inc. Its surroundings and cover identity make the service’s position plain: it operates outside the official system, but depends on technical access to one of that system’s most powerful tools.

When Honorious visits, Dinah Grebs, Euler’s secretary, ushers him into his private office. Euler is described as a short, plump, balding man with intelligent brown eyes, a friendly expression, and red cheeks. He has tried to furnish the office as an English drawing room; the result resembles a corner of a furniture warehouse instead. The details give him an approachable, slightly incongruous presence, a contrast with the secrecy and political sensitivity of his business.

Marriage as a State System

Euler frames his service against a society in which marriage is not merely a personal arrangement. The State promotes it as an obligation of political loyalty, claiming that married citizens support social stability and that single people are more likely to become malcontents or opponents of the government. Euler recounts this rationale at length, including the authority attributed to the National Board of Mothers, before distinguishing compulsory marriage itself from the question of whether a particular match will be tolerable.

His argument is pragmatic rather than a rejection of the system. If marriage is required by the State, he reasons, an individual still has a reason to want the marriage to work. Official computerized matchups, in his view, cannot answer that need: matching data is not the same as seeing the course of a relationship. He advocates testing the likely experience of a proposed marriage before it begins, so a person can make a more informed choice within a coercive institution.

The Simulator and Euler’s Method

Euler’s proposed solution is to use the Political Factors Synthesizer and Simulator, a machine designed to model interactions among groups and subgroups, for a different scale of prediction: the probable interactions between two individuals. He presents this as a way to observe the likely events of a marriage rather than rely on a compatibility score. The distinction is central to his offer. The Simulator is not described as certifying a perfect match; it allows the prospective spouse to examine a projected future and decide whether to accept it.

Honorious points out that the machine is guarded extremely closely. Euler answers that information is harder to secure than physical wealth. He says that the Simulator’s input channels can be turned into output by corrupt or idealistic operators, while declining to explain the technique. His confidence rests not on access to the machine itself but on a captive terminal outlet held by his organization. The account establishes both the reach and the limits of his operation: Clandestine Computer Services can provide a route into the system, but Euler keeps the mechanism of that access undisclosed.

Honorious and Dinah Grebs

Euler accepts Honorious as a client and sets a fee, then consults a schedule to arrange ten minutes of computer time at noon two days later. Dinah Grebs is to take Honorious to the terminal and explain the procedure. He reminds him to bring data cards for himself and his prospective wives, treating the session as a practical appointment with specific preparation rather than a speculative demonstration.

Honorious arrives with cards for fifteen candidates. They have been selected for him by Computerized Marriage Matchup Services from the National Availability Pool of American Single Women, after the agency assessed answers to 1,006 questions. The women are represented to him by numbers, and their identities remain concealed until an Official Pair-Bonding Decision is made. They have elected instant-available status, so his willingness to marry any one of them would be sufficient to proceed. This arrangement gives Euler’s proposed simulation a concrete and consequential use: it offers Honorious another basis for choosing among matches already organized by bureaucratic screening.

The anonymity breaks down when Honorious recognizes Dinah as candidate 6903. Euler, surprised by the discovery, asks her how her data card entered Honorious’s selected list. Dinah refuses to explain in front of him, saying she will tell Honorious alone. Euler leaves, and the two are left to confront the matter privately. The evidence does not disclose Dinah’s reason or what follows, but the moment changes the meaning of the consultation: a numbered candidate is also the person who has been guiding Honorious through Euler’s office.

Narrative Role

Euler serves as the broker between a centralized predictive system and an individual trying to make a decision about marriage. His office, his guarded account of the terminal, and his scheduled access make the prospect of private choice depend on an intermediary willing to exploit information that the authorities have not fully contained. At the same time, his eloquent defense of marriage as a problem to be evaluated sits beside the unplanned personal recognition of Dinah. The episode thus brings his method to a sharp limit: simulation can arrange and compare prospective futures, while the actual identities and circumstances behind its data may resist being treated as merely numerical.