‘It’s a great _coup_,’ said the chairman. ‘It puts you right at the head of the list. Closing time is imminent, gentlemen. So if you have anything else to say, get on with it.’ ‘Well,’ said Quillian, ‘somebody ought to have spotted him. It’s really more our carelessness than his cleverness. But I should imagine that’s the last undetected quotation he will be able to get through to-night. You’re a watched man now.’ ‘By Jove, yes,’ said the Major. ‘Since you talk like that,’ said Pusely-Smythe, smiling. ‘I will make another quotation. By the way, how long will you give me? I should have asked you that before, of course.’ ‘Five minutes,’ said the Major. ‘And then perhaps we might close the competition, if the chairman sees fit.’ A general agreement was reached on this point, and Pusely-Smythe was enjoined by the chairman to get on with it. ‘I’ve finished, thanks,’ said Pusely-Smythe. ‘The words, “I should have asked you that before,” are a quotation from a play called _Romeo and Juliet_. It’s the second scene of the first act—Romeo speaking.’ The quotation was verified, and advanced Pusely-Smythe’s score to thirteen—a lucky number for once—thus leaving him an easy winner. ‘And,’ said young Hesseltine, the chairman, as he handed him the cheque, ‘considering the way you must have sweated through tons and tons of absolute Shakespeare during the month, in order to pick out the little bits that didn’t look like quotations, I’m not sure that you haven’t earned about five per cent. of it.’ The chairman now opened the sealed envelope containing the problem for the next month. In this the talented editor of _The Pig-Keepers’ Friend_ had been quite brief. It was entitled ‘The Impersonation Problem,’ and the terms of it were as follows:— ‘It is required to be mistaken for six different people in the course of one hour.’ ‘He don’t use any unnecessary words about it,’ said Mr Matthews. But it may be remembered that the editor of _The Pig-Keepers’ Friend_ was also a poet—and real poets never use unnecessary words. No. VIII. The Impersonation Problem The terms of the Impersonation Problem, which came up for adjudication at the fiftieth meeting of the club, were as follows:— ‘It is required to be mistaken for six different people in the course of one hour.’ Mr Wildersley, A.R.A.—large, cheerful, and childlike—took the chair, and observed that it was just as well for other members that the dignified position of adjudicator prevented him from competing, as otherwise he would have been a certain winner. It was a claim that the chairman for the evening very frequently made, but Wildersley was not very serious about it.