In her discreet office in Mayfair, London, Olivia Rigg is explaining how she gets the measure of her male clients. Has an interior decorator done their home? (“You can always tell.”) Do they have photos of family on the wall? How gracious are they to waiters? How do they behave on the tennis court?

Rigg calls herself a “consultant”; wealthy men hire her to find them a girlfriend or wife. She charges £20,000 for six months. It’s not uncommon for her to be offered a million-pound “success fee” if a client ends up married. If this sounds a little queasy, a form of wife-procurement service, Rigg says that more wealthy British men than ever are choosing to outsource the management of their love lives, and