“Speed dating is all about bedroom potential”

AT A DINNER party, there is a post-pudding lull in which an idle conversation about speed-dating begins.

“If I was speed-dating,” I say without any forethought, “and viewing second-date potential, I’d be tempted to skip the gruesome-looking ones.”

At this, the chat suddenly becomes less desultory and there is a slight bristling to my left, where a lugubrious man sits.