But it was not felt that the time had come for extreme measures.

It was believed that the newest Whipple should merely be reasoned with.

To this end they began to reason among themselves, and were presently wrangling.
It developed that Sharon's idea of reasoning lacked subtlety.

It developed that Gideon and Harvey D.reasoned themselves into sheer bewilderment in an effort to find reasons that would commend themselves to Merle; so that this first meeting of the conspirators was about to break up fruitlessly, when Sharon Whipple was inspired to a suggestion that repelled yet pricked the other two until they desperately yielded to it.

This was that none other than Dave Cowan be called into consultation.
"He'll know more about his own son than we do," urged Sharon.
Harvey D.'s feeling of true fatherhood was irritated by this way of putting it, but in the end he succumbed.