‘My ruling is that Mr Pusely-Smythe’s claim is conditionally allowed. It is true that Mrs Magsworth used other words both before and after the words required, but that is not precluded by the terms of the problem. The only other possible objection is that there was the interpolation of a full stop. Now, there is no full stop in spoken speech: it is represented by a pause. In this case the pause indicated the end of a sentence. In another case the pause might have indicated that the woman could not for a moment think of the word giraffe. In that case I am sure that no objection would have been raised. Yet there, too, a sign could be used to represent it in print or writing. Leonard requires certain words in a certain order, but he does not forbid a pause to be made between them. Unless some member has induced a woman to use the same words with no pause whatever—which I should rule to be a still better solution—Mr Pusely-Smythe’s claim is allowed.’ As no other member had met with any success at all, a cheque for one hundred and ten pounds was drawn to the order of Mr Pusely-Smythe and handed to him with the congratulations of the chairman. The chairman’s next duty was to open the sealed envelope containing the problem set by the ingenious Leonard for the ensuing month. This was entitled ‘The Kiss Problem,’ and when its conditions were read out both Major Byles and the Rev. Septimus Cunliffe objected to it, though on totally different grounds, and urged that Leonard should be asked to substitute something else. However, on a vote being taken, it was agreed by a considerable majority that ‘The Kiss Problem’ should be retained, although, as the chairman pointed out, it looked excessively dangerous. Mr Pusely-Smythe was reminded that it was his turn to be chairman at the next meeting. And then, the business of the evening being at an end, the card-tables were brought in, and members addressed themselves to bridge at moderate points. No. II. The Kiss Problem Mr Pusely-Smythe’s air of saturnine melancholy was pronounced as he took the chair at the forty-fourth monthly meeting of the Problem Club. ‘Well, gentlemen,’ he began, ‘the waiters are supposed to have left the room, but in view of the nature of the problem before us to-night you would probably wish to be quite sure on the point. Will somebody kindly examine the screen by the waiters’ entrance?’ Mr Quillian, K.C., reported that no waiter was concealed, and further that the door was locked. ‘Thank you, my learned friend. Leonard—admirable as a head-waiter, ingenious and generally innocuous as the inventor of our problems—has on this occasion undergone a moral lapse. I will give you the words of this lamentable problem: “It is required within the space of one hour to kiss upon the cheek ten females of the age of courtship and not cousins or any nearer relative of the kisser, without giving offence to any one of them.”