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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Xingu
+       1916
+
+Author: Edith Wharton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24131]
+Last Updated: October 3, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+XINGU
+
+By Edith Wharton
+
+Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner’s Sons
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as
+though it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded
+the Lunch Club, an association composed of herself and several other
+indomitable huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four
+winters of lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that
+the entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted
+functions; in recognition of which it duly extended to the celebrated
+“Osric Dane,” on the day of her arrival in Hillbridge, an invitation to
+be present at the next meeting.
+
+The club was to meet at Mrs. Bellinger’s. The other members, behind
+her back, were of one voice in deploring her unwillingness to cede
+her rights in favor of Mrs. Plinth, whose house made a more impressive
+setting for the entertainment of celebrities; while, as Mrs. Leveret
+observed, there was always the picture-gallery to fall back on.
+
+Mrs. Plinth made no secret of sharing this view. She had always regarded
+it as one of her obligations to entertain the Lunch Club’s distinguished
+guests. Mrs. Plinth was almost as proud of her obligations as she was
+of her picture-gallery; she was in fact fond of implying that the one
+possession implied the other, and that only a woman of her wealth
+could afford to live up to a standard as high as that which she had set
+herself. An all-round sense of duty, roughly adaptable to various ends,
+was, in her opinion, all that Providence exacted of the more humbly
+stationed; but the power which had predestined Mrs. Plinth to keep a
+footman clearly intended her to maintain an equally specialized staff of
+responsibilities. It was the more to be regretted that Mrs. Ballinger,
+whose obligations to society were bounded by the narrow scope of two
+parlour-maids, should have been so tenacious of the right to entertain
+Osric Dane.
+
+The question of that lady’s reception had for a month past profoundly
+moved the members of the Lunch Club. It was not that they felt
+themselves unequal to the task, but that their sense of the opportunity
+plunged them into the agreeable uncertainty of the lady who weighs the
+alternatives of a well-stocked wardrobe. If such subsidiary members as
+Mrs. Leveret were fluttered by the thought of exchanging ideas with the
+author of “The Wings of Death,” no forebodings disturbed the conscious
+adequacy of Mrs. Plinth, Mrs. Ballinger and Miss Van Vluyck. “The Wings
+of Death” had, in fact, at Miss Van Vluyck’s suggestion, been chosen as
+the subject of discussion at the last club meeting, and each member had
+thus been enabled to express her own opinion or to appropriate whatever
+sounded well in the comments of the others.
+
+Mrs. Roby alone had abstained from profiting by the opportunity; but it
+was now openly recognised that, as a member of the Lunch Club, Mrs. Roby
+was a failure. “It all comes,” as Miss Van Vluyck put it, “of accepting
+a woman on a man’s estimation.” Mrs. Roby, returning to Hillbridge from
+a prolonged sojourn in exotic lands--the other ladies no longer took
+the trouble to remember where--had been heralded by the distinguished
+biologist, Professor Foreland, as the most agreeable woman he had ever
+met; and the members of the Lunch Club, impressed by an encomium
+that carried the weight of a diploma, and rashly assuming that the
+Professor’s social sympathies would follow the line of his professional
+bent, had seized the chance of annexing a biological member. Their
+disillusionment was complete. At Miss Van Vluyck’s first off-hand
+mention of the pterodactyl Mrs. Roby had confusedly murmured: “I know so
+little about metres--” and after that painful betrayal of incompetence
+she had prudently withdrawn from farther participation in the mental
+gymnastics of the club.
+
+“I suppose she flattered him,” Miss Van Vluyck summed up--“or else it’s
+the way she does her hair.”
+
+The dimensions of Miss Van Vluyck’s dining-room having restricted the
+membership of the club to six, the nonconductiveness of one member was
+a serious obstacle to the exchange of ideas, and some wonder had already
+been expressed that Mrs. Roby should care to live, as it were, on the
+intellectual bounty of the others. This feeling was increased by the
+discovery that she had not yet read “The Wings of Death.” She owned
+to having heard the name of Osric Dane; but that--incredible as it
+appeared--was the extent of her acquaintance with the celebrated
+novelist. The ladies could not conceal their surprise; but Mrs.
+Ballinger, whose pride in the club made her wish to put even Mrs. Roby
+in the best possible light, gently insinuated that, though she had not
+had time to acquaint herself with “The Wings of Death,” she must at
+least be familiar with its equally remarkable predecessor, “The Supreme
+Instant.”
+
+Mrs. Roby wrinkled her sunny brows in a conscientious effort of memory,
+as a result of which she recalled that, oh, yes, she _had_ seen the book
+at her brother’s, when she was staying with him in Brazil, and had even
+carried it off to read one day on a boating party; but they had all
+got to shying things at each other in the boat, and the book had gone
+overboard, so she had never had the chance--
+
+The picture evoked by this anecdote did not increase Mrs. Roby’s credit
+with the club, and there was a painful pause, which was broken by Mrs.
+Plinth’s remarking:
+
+“I can understand that, with all your other pursuits, you should not
+find much time for reading; but I should have thought you might at least
+have _got up_ ‘The Wings of Death’ before Osric Dane’s arrival.”
+
+Mrs. Roby took this rebuke good-humouredly. She had meant, she owned,
+to glance through the book; but she had been so absorbed in a novel of
+Trollope’s that--
+
+“No one reads Trollope now,” Mrs. Ballinger interrupted.
+
+Mrs. Roby looked pained. “I’m only just beginning,” she confessed.
+
+“And does he interest you?” Mrs. Plinth enquired.
+
+“He amuses me.”
+
+“Amusement,” said Mrs. Plinth, “is hardly what I look for in my choice
+of books.”
+
+“Oh, certainly, ‘The Wings of Death’ is not amusing,” ventured Mrs.
+Leveret, whose manner of putting forth an opinion was like that of an
+obliging salesman with a variety of other styles to submit if his first
+selection does not suit.
+
+“Was it _meant_ to be?” enquired Mrs. Plinth, who was fond of asking
+questions that she permitted no one but herself to answer. “Assuredly
+not.”
+
+“Assuredly not--that is what I was going to say,” assented Mrs. Leveret,
+hastily rolling up her opinion and reaching for another. “It was meant
+to--to elevate.”
+
+Miss Van Vluyck adjusted her spectacles as though they were the black
+cap of condemnation. “I hardly see,” she interposed, “how a book steeped
+in the bitterest pessimism can be said to elevate however much it may
+instruct.”
+
+“I meant, of course, to instruct,” said Mrs. Leveret, flurried by the
+unexpected distinction between two terms which she had supposed to be
+synonymous. Mrs. Leveret’s enjoyment of the Lunch Club was frequently
+marred by such surprises; and not knowing her own value to the other
+ladies as a mirror for their mental complacency she was sometimes
+troubled by a doubt of her worthiness to join in their debates. It was
+only the fact of having a dull sister who thought her clever that saved
+her, from a sense of hopeless inferiority.
+
+“Do they get married in the end?” Mrs. Roby interposed.
+
+“They--who?” the Lunch Club collectively exclaimed.
+
+“Why, the girl and man. It’s a novel, isn’t it? I always think that’s
+the one thing that matters. If they’re parted it spoils my dinner.”
+
+Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Ballinger exchanged scandalised glances, and the
+latter said: “I should hardly advise you to read ‘The Wings of Death’
+in that spirit. For my part, when there are so many books one _has_
+to read; I wonder how any one can find time for those that are merely
+amusing.”
+
+“The beautiful part of it,” Laura Glyde murmured, “is surely just
+this--that no one can tell how ‘The Wings of Death’ ends. Osric Dane,
+overcome by the awful significance of her own meaning, has mercifully
+veiled it--perhaps even from herself--as Apelles, in representing the
+sacrifice of Iphigenia, veiled the face of Agamemnon.”
+
+“What’s that? Is it poetry?” whispered Mrs. Leveret to Mrs. Plinth,
+who, disdaining a definite reply, said coldly: “You should look it up.
+I always make it a point to look things up.” Her tone added--“though I
+might easily have it done for me by the footman.”
+
+“I was about to say,” Miss Van Vluyck resumed, “that it must always be a
+question whether a book _can_ instruct unless it elevates.”
+
+“Oh--” murmured Mrs. Leveret, now feeling herself hopelessly astray.
+
+“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Ballinger, scenting in Miss Van Vluyck’s tone
+a tendency to depreciate the coveted distinction of entertaining Osric
+Dane; “I don’t know that such a question can seriously be raised as to a
+book which has attracted more attention among thoughtful people than any
+novel since ‘Robert Elsmere.’”
+
+“Oh, but don’t you see,” exclaimed Laura Glyde, “that it’s just the
+dark hopelessness of it all--the wonderful tone-scheme of black on
+black--that makes it such an artistic achievement? It reminded me when
+I read it of Prince Rupert’s _manière noire_...the book is etched, not
+painted, yet one feels the colour-values so intensely....”
+
+“Who is he?” Mrs. Leveret whispered to her neighbour. “Some one she’s
+met abroad?”
+
+“The wonderful part of the book,” Mrs. Bellinger conceded, “is that it
+may be looked at from so many points of view. I hear that as a study of
+determinism Professor Lupton ranks it with ‘The Data of Ethics.’”
+
+“I’m told that Osric Dane spent ten years in preparatory studies
+before beginning to write it,” said Mrs. Plinth. “She looks up
+everything--verifies everything. It has always been my principle, as
+you know. Nothing would induce me, now, to put aside a book before I’d
+finished it, just because I can buy as many more as I want.”
+
+“And what do _you_ think of ‘The Wings of Death’?” Mrs. Roby abruptly
+asked her.
+
+It was the kind of question that might be termed out of order, and the
+ladies glanced at each other as though disclaiming any share in such
+a breach of discipline. They all knew there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so
+much disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written
+to read; if one read them what more could be expected? To be questioned
+in detail regarding the contents of a volume seemed to her as great an
+outrage as being searched for smuggled laces at the Custom House. The
+club had always respected this idiosyncrasy of Mrs. Plinth’s. Such
+opinions as she had were imposing and substantial: her mind, like her
+house, was furnished with monumental “pieces” that were not meant to
+be disarranged; and it was one of the unwritten rules of the Lunch Club
+that, within her own province, each member’s habits of thought should be
+respected. The meeting therefore closed with an increased sense, on the
+part of the other ladies, of Mrs. Roby’s hopeless unfitness to be one of
+them.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Mrs. Leveret, on the eventful day, arrived early at Mrs. Ballinger’s,
+her volume of Appropriate Allusions in her pocket.
+
+It always flustered Mrs. Leveret to be late at the Lunch Club: she liked
+to collect her thoughts and gather a hint, as the others assembled, of
+the turn the conversation was likely to take. To-day, however, she
+felt herself completely at a loss; and even the familiar contact of
+Appropriate Allusions, which stuck into her as she sat down, failed to
+give her any reassurance. It was an admirable little volume, compiled
+to meet all the social emergencies; so that, whether on the occasion
+of Anniversaries, joyful or melancholy (as the classification ran),
+of Banquets, social or municipal, or of Baptisms, Church of England
+or sectarian, its student need never be at a loss for a pertinent
+reference. Mrs. Leveret, though she had for years devoutly conned its
+pages, valued it, however, rather for its moral support than for its
+practical services; for though in the privacy of her own room she
+commanded an army of quotations, these invariably deserted her at the
+critical moment, and the only phrase she retained--_Canst thou draw out
+leviathan with a hook_?--was one she had never yet found occasion to
+apply.
+
+To-day she felt that even the complete mastery of the volume would
+hardly have insured her self-possession; for she thought it probable
+that, even if she _did_, in some miraculous way, remember an Allusion,
+it would be only to find that Osric Dane used a different volume (Mrs.
+Leveret was convinced that literary people always carried them), and
+would consequently not recognise her quotations.
+
+Mrs. Leveret’s sense of being adrift was intensified by the appearance
+of Mrs. Ballinger’s drawing-room. To a careless eye its aspect was
+unchanged; but those acquainted with Mrs. Ballinger’s way of
+arranging her books would instantly have detected the marks of recent
+perturbation. Mrs. Ballinger’s province, as a member of the Lunch Club,
+was the Book of the Day. On that, whatever it was, from a novel to
+a treatise on experimental psychology, she was confidently,
+authoritatively “up.” What became of last year’s books, or last week’s
+even; what she did with the “subjects” she had previously professed with
+equal authority; no one had ever yet discovered. ‘Her mind was an hotel
+where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their
+address behind, and frequently without paying for their board. It was
+Mrs. Ballinger’s boast that she was “abreast with the Thought of the
+Day,” and her pride that this advanced position should be expressed by
+the books on her table. These volumes, frequently renewed, and almost
+always damp from the press, bore names generally unfamiliar to Mrs.
+Leveret, and giving her, as she furtively scanned them, a disheartening
+glimpse of new fields of knowledge to be breathlessly traversed in Mrs.
+Ballinger’s wake. But to-day a number of maturer-looking volumes were
+adroitly mingled with the _primeurs_ of the press--Karl Marx jostled
+Professor Bergson, and the “Confessions of St. Augustine” lay beside
+the last work on “Mendelism”; so that even to Mrs. Leveret’s fluttered
+perceptions it was clear that Mrs. Ballinger didn’t in the least know
+what Osric Dane was likely to talk about, and had taken measures to be
+prepared for anything. Mrs. Leveret felt like a passenger on an ocean
+steamer who is told that there is no immediate danger, but that she had
+better put on her life-belt.
+
+It was a relief to be roused from these forebodings by Miss Van Vluyck’s
+arrival.
+
+“Well, my dear,” the new-comer briskly asked her hostess, “what subjects
+are we to discuss to-day?”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger was furtively replacing a volume of Wordsworth by a copy
+of Verlaine. “I hardly know,” she said, somewhat nervously. “Perhaps we
+had better leave that to circumstances.”
+
+“Circumstances?” said Miss Van Vluyck drily. “That means, I suppose,
+that Laura Glyde will take the floor as usual, and we shall be deluged
+with literature.”
+
+Philanthropy and statistics were Miss Van Vluyck’s province, and she
+resented any tendency to divert their guest’s attention from these
+topics.
+
+Mrs. Plinth at this moment appeared.
+
+“Literature?” she protested in a tone of remonstrance. “But this is
+perfectly unexpected. I understood we were to talk of Osric Dane’s
+novel.”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger winced at the discrimination, but let it pass. “We can
+hardly make that our chief subject--at least not _too_ intentionally,”
+ she suggested. “Of course we can let our talk _drift_ in that direction;
+but we ought to have some other topic as an introduction, and that is
+what I wanted to consult you about. The fact is, we know so little
+of Osric Dane’s tastes and interests that it is difficult to make any
+special preparation.”
+
+“It may be difficult,” said Mrs. Plinth with decision, “but it is
+necessary. I know what that happy-go-lucky principle leads to. As I told
+one of my nieces the other day, there are certain emergencies for which
+a lady should always be prepared. It’s in shocking taste to wear colours
+when one pays a visit of condolence, or a last year’s dress when there
+are reports that one’s husband is on the wrong side of the market; and
+so it is with conversation. All I ask is that I should know beforehand
+what is to be talked about; then I feel sure of being able to say the
+proper thing.”
+
+“I quite agree with you,” Mrs. Ballinger assented; “but--”
+
+And at that instant, heralded by the fluttered parlourmaid, Osric Dane
+appeared upon the threshold.
+
+Mrs. Leveret told her sister afterward that she had known at a glance
+what was coming. She saw that Osric Dane was not going to meet them
+half way. That distinguished personage had indeed entered with an air of
+compulsion not calculated to promote the easy exercise of hospitality.
+She looked as though she were about to be photographed for a new edition
+of her books.
+
+The desire to propitiate a divinity is generally in inverse ratio to its
+responsiveness, and the sense of discouragement produced by Osric Dane’s
+entrance visibly increased the Lunch Club’s eagerness to please her. Any
+lingering idea that she might consider herself under an obligation to
+her entertainers was at once dispelled by her manner: as Mrs. Leveret
+said afterward to her sister, she had a way of looking at you that made
+you feel as if there was something wrong with your hat. This evidence
+of greatness produced such an immediate impression on the ladies that a
+shudder of awe ran through them when Mrs. Roby, as their hostess led
+the great personage into the dining-room, turned back to whisper to the
+others: “What a brute she is!”
+
+The hour about the table did not tend to revise this verdict. It was
+passed by Osric Dane in the silent deglutition of Mrs. Bollinger’s menu,
+and by the members of the club in the emission of tentative platitudes
+which their guest seemed to swallow as perfunctorily as the successive
+courses of the luncheon.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger’s reluctance to fix a topic had thrown the club into a
+mental disarray which increased with the return to the drawing-room,
+where the actual business of discussion was to open. Each lady waited
+for the other to speak; and there was a general shock of disappointment
+when their hostess opened the conversation by the painfully commonplace
+enquiry. “Is this your first visit to Hillbridge?”
+
+Even Mrs. Leveret was conscious that this was a bad beginning; and a
+vague impulse of deprecation made Miss Glyde interject: “It is a very
+small place indeed.”
+
+Mrs. Plinth bristled. “We have a great many representative people,” she
+said, in the tone of one who speaks for her order.
+
+Osric Dane turned to her. “What do they represent?” she asked.
+
+Mrs. Plinth’s constitutional dislike to being questioned was intensified
+by her sense of unpreparedness; and her reproachful glance passed the
+question on to Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+“Why,” said that lady, glancing in turn at the other members, “as a
+community I hope it is not too much to say that we stand for culture.”
+
+“For art--” Miss Glyde interjected.
+
+“For art and literature,” Mrs. Ballinger emended.
+
+“And for sociology, I trust,” snapped Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+“We have a standard,” said Mrs. Plinth, feeling herself suddenly secure
+on the vast expanse of a generalisation; and Mrs. Leveret, thinking
+there must be room for more than one on so broad a statement, took
+courage to murmur: “Oh, certainly; we have a standard.”
+
+“The object of our little club,” Mrs. Ballinger continued, “is to
+concentrate the highest tendencies of Hillbridge--to centralise and
+focus its intellectual effort.”
+
+This was felt to be so happy that the ladies drew an almost audible
+breath of relief.
+
+“We aspire,” the President went on, “to be in touch with whatever is
+highest in art, literature and ethics.”
+
+Osric Dane again turned to her. “What ethics?” she asked.
+
+A tremor of apprehension encircled the room. None of the ladies required
+any preparation to pronounce on a question of morals; but when they
+were called ethics it was different. The club, when fresh from
+the “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” the “Reader’s Handbook” or Smith’s
+“Classical Dictionary,” could deal confidently with any subject; but
+when taken unawares it had been known to define agnosticism as a heresy
+of the Early Church and Professor Froude as a distinguished histologist;
+and such minor members as Mrs. Leveret still secretly regarded ethics as
+something vaguely pagan.
+
+Even to Mrs. Ballinger, Osric Dane’s question was unsettling, and there
+was a general sense of gratitude when Laura Glyde leaned forward to say,
+with her most sympathetic accent: “You must excuse us, Mrs. Dane, for
+not being able, just at present, to talk of anything but ‘The Wings of
+Death.”’
+
+“Yes,” said Miss Van Vluyck, with a sudden resolve to carry the war into
+the enemy’s camp. “We are so anxious to know the exact purpose you had
+in mind in writing your wonderful book.”
+
+“You will find,” Mrs. Plinth interposed, “that we are not superficial
+readers.”
+
+“We are eager to hear from you,” Miss Van Vluyck continued, “if
+the pessimistic tendency of the book is an expression of your own
+convictions or--”
+
+“Or merely,” Miss Glyde thrust in, “a sombre background brushed in
+to throw your figures into more vivid relief. _Are_ you not primarily
+plastic?”
+
+“I have always maintained,” Mrs. Ballinger interposed, “that you
+represent the purely objective method--”
+
+Osric Dane helped herself critically to coffee. “How do you define
+objective?” she then enquired.
+
+There was a flurried pause before Laura Glyde intensely murmured: “In
+reading _you_ we don’t define, we feel.”
+
+Otsric Dane smiled. “The cerebellum,” she remarked, “is not infrequently
+the seat of the literary emotions.” And she took a second lump of sugar.
+
+The sting that this remark was vaguely felt to conceal was almost
+neutralised by the satisfaction of being addressed in such technical
+language.
+
+“Ah, the cerebellum,” said Miss Van Vluyck complacently. “The club took
+a course in psychology last winter.”
+
+“Which psychology?” asked Osric Dane.
+
+There was an agonising pause, during which each member of the club
+secretly deplored the distressing inefficiency of the others. Only Mrs.
+Roby went on placidly sipping her chartreuse. At last Mrs. Ballinger
+said, with an attempt at a high tone: “Well, really, you know, it was
+last year that we took psychology, and this winter we have been so
+absorbed in--”
+
+She broke off, nervously trying to recall some of the club’s
+discussions; but her faculties seemed to be paralysed by the petrifying
+stare of Osric Dane. What _had_ the club been absorbed in? Mrs.
+Ballinger, with a vague purpose of gaining time, repeated slowly: “We’ve
+been so intensely absorbed in--”
+
+Mrs. Roby put down her liqueur glass and drew near the group with a
+smile.
+
+“In Xingu?” she gently prompted.
+
+A thrill ran through the other members. They exchanged confused
+glances, and then, with one accord, turned a gaze of mingled relief
+and interrogation on their rescuer. The expression of each denoted
+a different phase of the same emotion. Mrs. Plinth was the first to
+compose her features to an air of reassurance: after a moment’s hasty
+adjustment her look almost implied that it was she who had given the
+word to Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+“Xingu, of course!” exclaimed the latter with her accustomed promptness,
+while Miss Van Vluyck and Laura Glyde seemed to be plumbing the depths
+of memory, and Mrs. Leveret, feeling apprehensively for Appropriate
+Allusions, was somehow reassured by the uncomfortable pressure of its
+bulk against her person.
+
+Osric Dane’s change of countenance was no less striking than that of
+her entertainers. She too put down her coffee-cup, but with a look of
+distinct annoyance; she too wore, for a brief moment, what Mrs. Roby
+afterward described as the look of feeling for something in the back
+of her head; and before she could dissemble these momentary signs of
+weakness, Mrs. Roby, turning to her with a deferential smile, had said:
+“And we’ve been so hoping that to-day you would tell us just what you
+think of it.”
+
+Osric Dane received the homage of the smile as a matter of course; but
+the accompanying question obviously embarrassed her, and it became clear
+to her observers that she was not quick at shifting her facial scenery.
+It was as though her countenance had so long been set in an expression
+of unchallenged superiority that the muscles had stiffened, and refused
+to obey her orders.
+
+“Xingu--” she said, as if seeking in her turn to gain time.
+
+Mrs. Roby continued to press her. “Knowing how engrossing the subject
+is, you will understand how it happens that the club has let everything
+else go to the wall for the moment. Since we took up Xingu I might
+almost say--were it not for your books--that nothing else seems to us
+worth remembering.”
+
+Osric Dane’s stern features were darkened rather than lit up by an
+uneasy smile. “I am glad to hear that you make one exception,” she gave
+out between narrowed lips.
+
+“Oh, of course,” Mrs. Roby said prettily; “but as you have shown us
+that--so very naturally!--you don’t care to talk of your own things, we
+really can’t let you off from telling us exactly what you think about
+Xingu; especially,” she added, with a still more persuasive smile, “as
+some people say that one of your last books was saturated with it.”
+
+It was an _it_, then--the assurance sped like fire through the parched
+minds of the other members. In their eagerness to gain the least
+little clue to Xingu they almost forgot the joy of assisting at the
+discomfiture of Mrs. Dane.
+
+The latter reddened nervously under her antagonist’s challenge. “May I
+ask,” she faltered out, “to which of my books you refer?”
+
+Mrs. Roby did not falter. “That’s just what I want you to tell us;
+because, though I was present, I didn’t actually take part.”
+
+“Present at what?” Mrs. Dane took her up; and for an instant the
+trembling members of the Lunch Club thought that the champion Providence
+had raised up for them had lost a point. But Mrs. Roby explained herself
+gaily: “At the discussion, of course. And so we’re dreadfully anxious to
+know just how it was that you went into the Xingu.”
+
+There was a portentous pause, a silence so big with incalculable dangers
+that the members with one accord checked the words on their lips, like
+soldiers dropping their arms to watch a single combat between their
+leaders. Then Mrs. Dane gave expression to their inmost dread by saying
+sharply: “Ah--you say _the_ Xingu, do you?”
+
+Mrs. Roby smiled undauntedly. “It is a shade pedantic, isn’t it?
+Personally, I always drop the article; but I don’t know how the other
+members feel about it.”
+
+The other members looked as though they would willingly have dispensed
+with this appeal to their opinion, and Mrs. Roby, after a bright glance
+about the group, went on: “They probably think, as I do, that nothing
+really matters except the thing itself--except Xingu.”
+
+No immediate reply seemed to occur to Mrs. Dane, and Mrs. Ballinger
+gathered courage to say: “Surely every one must feel that about Xingu.”
+
+Mrs. Plinth came to her support with a heavy murmur of assent, and Laura
+Glyde sighed out emotionally: “I have known cases where it has changed a
+whole life.”
+
+“It has done me worlds of good,” Mrs. Leveret interjected, seeming to
+herself to remember that she had either taken it or read it the winter
+before.
+
+“Of course,” Mrs. Roby admitted, “the difficulty is that one must give
+up so much time to it. It’s very long.”
+
+“I can’t imagine,” said Miss Van Vluyck, “grudging the time given to
+such a subject.”
+
+“And deep in places,” Mrs. Roby pursued; (so then it was a book!) “And
+it isn’t easy to skip.”
+
+“I never skip,” said Mrs. Plinth dogmatically.
+
+“Ah, it’s dangerous to, in Xingu. Even at the start there are places
+where one can’t. One must just wade through.”
+
+“I should hardly call it _wading_,” said Mrs. Ballinger sarcastically.
+
+Mrs. Roby sent her a look of interest. “Ah--you always found it went
+swimmingly?”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger hesitated. “Of course there are difficult passages,” she
+conceded.
+
+“Yes; some are not at all clear--even,” Mrs. Roby added, “if one is
+familiar with the original.”
+
+“As I suppose you are?” Osric Dane interposed, suddenly fixing her with
+a look of challenge.
+
+Mrs. Roby met it by a deprecating gesture. “Oh, it’s really not
+difficult up to a certain point; though some of the branches are very
+little known, and it’s almost impossible to get at the source.”
+
+“Have you ever tried?” Mrs. Plinth enquired, still distrustful of Mrs.
+Roby’s thoroughness.
+
+Mrs. Roby was silent for a moment; then she replied with lowered lids:
+“No--but a friend of mine did; a very brilliant man; and he told me it
+was best for women--not to....”
+
+A shudder ran around the room. Mrs. Leveret coughed so that the
+parlour-maid, who was handing the cigarettes, should not hear; Miss Van
+Vluyck’s face took on a nauseated expression, and Mrs. Plinth looked as
+if she were passing some one she did not care to bow to. But the most
+remarkable result of Mrs. Roby’s words was the effect they produced on
+the Lunch Club’s distinguished guest. Osric Dane’s impassive features
+suddenly softened to an expression of the warmest human sympathy, and
+edging her chair toward Mrs. Roby’s she asked: “Did he really? And--did
+you find he was right?”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger, in whom annoyance at Mrs. Roby’s unwonted assumption
+of prominence was beginning to displace gratitude for the aid she had
+rendered, could not consent to her being allowed, by such dubious means,
+to monopolise the attention of their guest. If Osric Dane had not enough
+self-respect to resent Mrs. Roby’s flippancy, at least the Lunch Club
+would do so in the person of its President.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger laid her hand on Mrs. Roby’s arm. “We must not forget,”
+ she said with a frigid amiability, “that absorbing as Xingu is to _us_,
+it may be less interesting to--”
+
+“Oh, no, on the contrary, I assure you,” Osric Dane intervened.
+
+“--to others,” Mrs. Ballinger finished firmly; “and we must not allow
+our little meeting to end without persuading Mrs. Dane to say a few
+words to us on a subject which, to-day, is much more present in all our
+thoughts. I refer, of course, to ‘The Wings of Death.’”
+
+The other members, animated by various degrees of the same sentiment,
+and encouraged by the humanised mien of their redoubtable guest,
+repeated after Mrs. Ballinger: “Oh, yes, you really _must_ talk to us a
+little about your book.”
+
+Osric Dane’s expression became as bored, though not as haughty, as when
+her work had been previously mentioned. But before she could respond
+to Mrs. Ballinger’s request, Mrs. Roby had risen from her seat, and was
+pulling down her veil over her frivolous nose.
+
+“I’m so sorry,” she said, advancing toward her hostess with outstretched
+hand, “but before Mrs. Dane begins I think I’d better run away.
+Unluckily, as you know, I haven’t read her books, so I should be at a
+terrible disadvantage among you all, and besides, I’ve an engagement to
+play bridge.”
+
+If Mrs. Roby had simply pleaded her ignorance of Osric Dane’s works as
+a reason for withdrawing, the Lunch Club, in view of her recent prowess,
+might have approved such evidence of discretion; but to couple this
+excuse with the brazen announcement that she was foregoing the privilege
+for the purpose of joining a bridge-party was only one more instance of
+her deplorable lack of discrimination.
+
+The ladies were disposed, however, to feel that her departure--now
+that she had performed the sole service she was ever likely to render
+them--would probably make for greater order and dignity in the impending
+discussion, besides relieving them of the sense of self-distrust which
+her presence always mysteriously produced. Mrs. Ballinger therefore
+restricted herself to a formal murmur of regret, and the other members
+were just grouping themselves comfortably about Osric Dane when the
+latter, to their dismay, started up from the sofa on which she had been
+seated.
+
+“Oh wait--do wait, and I’ll go with you!” she called out to Mrs. Roby;
+and, seizing the hands of the disconcerted members, she administered
+a series of farewell pressures with the mechanical haste of a
+railway-conductor punching tickets.
+
+“I’m so sorry--I’d quite forgotten--” she flung back at them from the
+threshold; and as she joined Mrs. Roby, who had turned in surprise at
+her appeal, the other ladies had the mortification of hearing her say,
+in a voice which she did not take the pains to lower: “If you’ll let
+me walk a little way with you, I should so like to ask you a few more
+questions about Xingu....”
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+The incident had been so rapid that the door closed on the departing
+pair before the other members had time to understand what was
+happening. Then a sense of the indignity put upon them by Osric Dane’s
+unceremonious desertion began to contend with the confused feeling that
+they had been cheated out of their due without exactly knowing how or
+why.
+
+There was a silence, during which Mrs. Ballinger, with a perfunctory
+hand, rearranged the skilfully grouped literature at which her
+distinguished guest had not so much as glanced; then Miss Van Vluyck
+tartly pronounced: “Well, I can’t say that I consider Osric Dane’s
+departure a great loss.”
+
+This confession crystallised the resentment of the other members, and
+Mrs. Leveret exclaimed: “I do believe she came on purpose to be nasty!”
+
+It was Mrs. Plinth’s private opinion that Osric Dane’s attitude toward
+the Lunch Club might have been very different had it welcomed her in the
+majestic setting of the Plinth drawing-rooms; but not liking to reflect
+on the inadequacy of Mrs. Ballinger’s establishment she sought a
+roundabout satisfaction in depreciating her lack of foresight.
+
+“I said from the first that we ought to have had a subject ready. It’s
+what always happens when you’re unprepared. Now if we’d only got up
+Xingu--”
+
+The slowness of Mrs. Plinth’s mental processes was always allowed for
+by the club; but this instance of it was too much for Mrs. Ballinger’s
+equanimity.
+
+“Xingu!” she scoffed. “Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more
+about it than she did--unprepared though we were--that made Osric Dane
+so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to everybody!”
+
+This retort impressed even Mrs. Plinth, and Laura Glyde, moved by an
+impulse of generosity, said: “Yes, we really ought to be grateful
+to Mrs. Roby for introducing the topic. It may have made Osric Dane
+furious, but at least it made her civil.”
+
+“I am glad we were able to show her,” added Miss Van Vluyck, “that a
+broad and up-to-date culture is not confined to the great intellectual
+centres.”
+
+This increased the satisfaction of the other members, and they began
+to forget their wrath against Osric Dane in the pleasure of having
+contributed to her discomfiture.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck thoughtfully rubbed her spectacles. “What surprised me
+most,” she continued, “was that Fanny Roby should be so up on Xingu.”
+
+This remark threw a slight chill on the company, but Mrs. Ballinger
+said with an air of indulgent irony: “Mrs. Roby always has the knack of
+making a little go a long way; still, we certainly owe her a debt for
+happening to remember that she’d heard of Xingu.” And this was felt by
+the other members to be a graceful way of cancelling once for all the
+club’s obligation to Mrs. Roby.
+
+Even Mrs. Leveret took courage to speed a timid shaft of irony. “I fancy
+Osric Dane hardly expected to take a lesson in Xingu at Hillbridge!”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger smiled. “When she asked me what we represented--do you
+remember?--I wish I’d simply said we represented Xingu!”
+
+All the ladies laughed appreciatively at this sally, except Mrs. Plinth,
+who said, after a moment’s deliberation: “I’m not sure it would have
+been wise to do so.”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger, who was already beginning to feel as if she had
+launched at Osric Dane the retort which had just occurred to her, turned
+ironically on Mrs. Plinth. “May I ask why?” she enquired.
+
+Mrs. Plinth looked grave. “Surely,” she said, “I understood from Mrs.
+Roby herself that the subject was one it was as well not to go into too
+deeply?”
+
+Miss Van Vluyck rejoined with precision: “I think that applied only to
+an investigation of the origin of the--of the--“; and suddenly she found
+that her usually accurate memory had failed her. “It’s a part of the
+subject I never studied myself/,” she concluded.
+
+“Nor I,” said Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+Laura Glyde bent toward them with widened eyes. “And yet it
+seems--doesn’t it?--the part that is fullest of an esoteric
+fascination?”
+
+“I don’t know on what you base that,” said Miss Van Vluyck
+argumentatively.
+
+“Well, didn’t you notice how intensely interested Osric Dane became as
+soon as she heard what the brilliant foreigner--he _was_ a foreigner,
+wasn’t he?--had told Mrs. Roby about the origin--the origin of the
+rite--or whatever you call it?”
+
+Mrs. Plinth looked disapproving, and Mrs. Ballinger visibly wavered.
+Then she said: “It may not be desirable to touch on the--on that part
+of the subject in general conversation; but, from the importance it
+evidently has to a woman of Osric Dane’s distinction, I feel as if
+we ought not to be afraid to discuss it among ourselves--without
+gloves--though with closed doors, if necessary.”
+
+“I’m quite of your opinion,” Miss Van Vluyck came briskly to her
+support; “on condition, that is, that all grossness of language is
+avoided.”
+
+“Oh, I’m sure we shall understand without that,” Mrs. Leveret tittered;
+and Laura Glyde added significantly: “I fancy we can read between the
+lines,” while Mrs. Ballinger rose to assure herself that the doors
+were really closed.
+
+Mrs. Plinth had not yet given her adhesion. “I hardly see,” she
+began, “what benefit is to be derived from investigating such peculiar
+customs--”
+
+But Mrs. Ballinger’s patience had reached the extreme limit of tension.
+“This at least,” she returned; “that we shall not be placed again in the
+humiliating position of finding ourselves less up on our own subjects
+than Fanny Roby!”
+
+Even to Mrs. Plinth this argument was conclusive. She peered furtively
+about the room and lowered her commanding tones to ask: “Have you got a
+copy?”
+
+“A--a copy?” stammered Mrs. Ballinger. She was aware that the other
+members were looking at her expectantly, and that this answer was
+inadequate, so she supported it by asking another question. “A copy of
+what?”
+
+Her companions bent their expectant gaze on Mrs. Plinth, who, in turn,
+appeared less sure of herself than usual. “Why, of--of--the book,” she
+explained.
+
+“What book?” snapped Miss Van Vluyck, almost as sharply as Osric Dane.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger looked at Laura Glyde, whose eyes were interrogatively
+fixed on Mrs. Leveret. The fact of being deferred to was so new to
+the latter that it filled her with an insane temerity. “Why, Xingu, of
+course!” she exclaimed.
+
+A profound silence followed this challenge to the resources of Mrs.
+Ballinger’s library, and the latter, after glancing nervously toward the
+Books of the Day, returned with dignity: “It’s not a thing one cares to
+leave about.”
+
+“I should think not!” exclaimed Mrs. Plinth.
+
+“It _is_ a book, then?” said Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+This again threw the company into disarray, and Mrs. Ballinger, with an
+impatient sigh, rejoined: “Why--there _is_ a book--naturally....”
+
+“Then why did Miss Glyde call it a religion?”
+
+Laura Glyde started up. “A religion? I never--”
+
+“Yes, you did,” Miss Van Vluyck insisted; “you spoke of rites; and Mrs.
+Plinth said it was a custom.”
+
+Miss Glyde was evidently making a desperate effort to recall her
+statement; but accuracy of detail was not her strongest point. At length
+she began in a deep murmur: “Surely they used to do something of the
+kind at the Eleusinian mysteries--”
+
+“Oh--” said Miss Van Vluyck, on the verge of disapproval; and Mrs.
+Plinth protested: “I understood there was to be no indelicacy!”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger could not control her irritation. “Really, it is too
+bad that we should not be able to talk the matter over quietly among
+ourselves. Personally, I think that if one goes into Xingu at all--”
+
+“Oh, so do I!” cried Miss Glyde.
+
+“And I don’t see how one can avoid doing so, if one wishes to keep up
+with the Thought of the Day--”
+
+Mrs. Leveret uttered an exclamation of relief. “There--that’s it!” she
+interposed.
+
+“What’s it?” the President took her up.
+
+“Why--it’s a--a Thought: I mean a philosophy.”
+
+This seemed to bring a certain relief to Mrs. Ballinger and Laura Glyde,
+but Miss Van Vluyck said: “Excuse me if I tell you that you’re all
+mistaken. Xingu happens to be a language.”
+
+“A language!” the Lunch Club cried.
+
+“Certainly. Don’t you remember Fanny Roby’s saying that there were
+several branches, and that some were hard to trace? What could that
+apply to but dialects?”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger could no longer restrain a contemptuous laugh. “Really,
+if the Lunch Club has reached such a pass that it has to go to Fanny
+Roby for instruction on a subject like Xingu, it had almost better cease
+to exist!”
+
+“It’s really her fault for not being clearer,” Laura Glyde put in.
+
+“Oh, clearness and Fanny Roby!” Mrs. Ballinger shrugged. “I daresay we
+shall find she was mistaken on almost every point.”
+
+“Why not look it up?” said Mrs. Plinth.
+
+As a rule this recurrent suggestion of Mrs. Plinth’s was ignored in the
+heat of discussion, and only resorted to afterward in the privacy of
+each member’s home. But on the present occasion the desire to ascribe
+their own confusion of thought to the vague and contradictory nature of
+Mrs. Roby’s statements caused the members of the Lunch Club to utter a
+collective demand for a book of reference.
+
+At this point the production of her treasured volume gave Mrs. Leveret,
+for a moment, the unusual experience of occupying the centre front; but
+she was not able to hold it long, for Appropriate Allusions contained no
+mention of Xingu.
+
+“Oh, that’s not the kind of thing we want!” exclaimed Miss Van Vluyck.
+She cast a disparaging glance over Mrs. Ballinger’s assortment of
+literature, and added impatiently: “Haven’t you any useful books?”
+
+“Of course I have,” replied Mrs. Ballinger indignantly; “I keep them in
+my husband’s dressing-room.”
+
+From this region, after some difficulty and delay, the parlour-maid
+produced the W-Z volume of an Encyclopaedia and, in deference to the
+fact that the demand for it had come from Miss Van Vluyck, laid the
+ponderous tome before her.
+
+There was a moment of painful suspense while Miss Van Vluyck rubbed her
+spectacles, adjusted them, and turned to Z; and a murmur of surprise
+when she said: “It isn’t here.”
+
+“I suppose,” said Mrs. Plinth, “it’s not fit to be put in a book of
+reference.”
+
+“Oh, nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Ballinger. “Try X.”
+
+Miss Van Vluyck turned back through the volume, peering short-sightedly
+up and down the pages, till she came to a stop and remained motionless,
+like a dog on a point.
+
+“Well, have you found it?” Mrs. Ballinger enquired after a considerable
+delay.
+
+“Yes. I’ve found it,” said Miss Van Vluyck in a queer voice.
+
+Mrs. Plinth hastily interposed: “I beg you won’t read it aloud if
+there’s anything offensive.”
+
+Miss Van Vluyck, without answering, continued her silent scrutiny.
+
+“Well, what _is_ it?” exclaimed Laura Glyde excitedly.
+
+“_Do_ tell us!” urged Mrs. Leveret, feeling that she would have
+something awful to tell her sister.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck pushed the volume aside and turned slowly toward the
+expectant group.
+
+“It’s a river.”
+
+“A _river?_”
+
+“Yes: in Brazil. Isn’t that where she’s been living?”
+
+“Who? Fanny Roby? Oh, but you must be mistaken. You’ve been reading the
+wrong thing,” Mrs. Ballinger exclaimed, leaning over her to seize the
+volume.
+
+“It’s the only Xingu in the Encyclopaedia; and she _has_ been living in
+Brazil,” Miss Van Vluyck persisted.
+
+“Yes: her brother has a consulship there,” Mrs. Leveret interposed.
+
+“But it’s too ridiculous! I--we--why we _all_ remember studying Xingu
+last year--or the year before last,” Mrs. Ballinger stammered.
+
+“I thought I did when _you_ said so,” Laura Glyde avowed.
+
+“I said so?” cried Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+“Yes. You said it had crowded everything else out of your mind.”
+
+“Well _you_ said it had changed your whole life!”
+
+“For that matter. Miss Van Vluyck said she had never grudged the time
+she’d given it.”
+
+Mrs. Plinth interposed: “I made it clear that I knew nothing whatever of
+the original.”
+
+Mrs. Ballinger broke off the dispute with a groan. “Oh, what does it
+all matter if she’s been making fools of us? I believe Miss Van Vluyck’s
+right--she was talking of the river all the while!”
+
+“How could she? It’s too preposterous,” Miss Glyde exclaimed.
+
+“Listen.” Miss Van Vluyck had repossessed herself of the Encyclopaedia,
+and restored her spectacles to a nose reddened by excitement. “‘The
+Xingu, one of the principal rivers of Brazil, rises on the plateau of
+Mato Grosso, and flows in a northerly direction for a length of no less
+than one thousand one hundred and eighteen miles, entering the Amazon
+near the mouth of the latter river. The upper course of the Xingu is
+auriferous and fed by numerous branches. Its source was first discovered
+in 1884 by the German explorer von den Steinen, after a difficult and
+dangerous expedition through a region inhabited by tribes still in the
+Stone Age of culture.’”
+
+The ladies received this communication in a state of stupefied silence
+from which Mrs. Leveret was the first to rally. “She certainly _did_
+speak of its having branches.”
+
+The word seemed to snap the last thread of their incredulity. “And of
+its great length,” gasped Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+“She said it was awfully deep, and you couldn’t skip--you just had to
+wade through,” Miss Glyde added.
+
+The idea worked its way more slowly through Mrs. Plinth’s compact
+resistances. “How could there be anything improper about a river?” she
+enquired.
+
+“Improper?”
+
+“Why, what she said about the source--that it was corrupt?”
+
+“Not corrupt, but hard to get at,” Laura Glyde corrected. “Some
+one who’d been there had told her so. I daresay it was the explorer
+himself--doesn’t it say the expedition was dangerous?”
+
+“‘Difficult and dangerous,’” read Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. “There’s
+nothing she said that wouldn’t apply to a river--to this river!” She
+swung about excitedly to the other members. “Why, do you remember her
+telling us that she hadn’t read ‘The Supreme Instant’ because she’d
+taken it on a boating party while she was staying with her brother,
+and some one had ‘shied’ it overboard--‘shied’ of course was her own
+expression.”
+
+The ladies breathlessly signified that the expression had not escaped
+them.
+
+“Well--and then didn’t she tell Osric Dane that one of her books was
+simply saturated with Xingu? Of course it was, if one of Mrs. Roby’s
+rowdy friends had thrown it into the river!”
+
+This surprising reconstruction of the scene in which they had just
+participated left the members of the Lunch Club inarticulate. At length,
+Mrs. Plinth, after visibly labouring with the problem, said in a heavy
+tone: “Osric Dane was taken in too.”
+
+Mrs. Leveret took courage at this. “Perhaps that’s what Mrs. Roby did
+it for. She said Osric Dane was a brute, and she may have wanted to give
+her a lesson.”
+
+Miss Van Vluyck frowned. “It was hardly worth while to do it at our
+expense.”
+
+“At least,” said Miss Glyde with a touch of bitterness, “she succeeded
+in interesting her, which was more than we did.”
+
+“What chance had we?” rejoined Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+“Mrs. Roby monopolised her from the first. And _that_, I’ve no doubt,
+was her purpose--to give Osric Dane a false impression of her own
+standing in the club. She would hesitate at nothing to attract
+attention: we all know how she took in poor Professor Foreland.”
+
+“She actually makes him give bridge-teas every Thursday,” Mrs. Leveret
+piped up.
+
+Laura Glyde struck her hands together. “Why, this is Thursday, and it’s
+_there_ she’s gone, of course; and taken Osric with her!”
+
+“And they’re shrieking over us at this moment,” said Mrs. Ballinger
+between her teeth.
+
+This possibility seemed too preposterous to be admitted. “She would
+hardly dare,” said Miss Van Vluyck, “confess the imposture to Osric
+Dane.”
+
+“I’m not so sure: I thought I saw her make a sign as she left. If she
+hadn’t made a sign, why should Osric Dane have rushed out after her?”
+
+“Well, you know, we’d all been telling her how wonderful Xingu was, and
+she said she wanted to find out more about it,” Mrs. Leveret said, with
+a tardy impulse of justice to the absent.
+
+This reminder, far from mitigating the wrath of the other members, gave
+it a stronger impetus.
+
+“Yes--and that’s exactly what they’re both laughing over now,” said
+Laura Glyde ironically.
+
+Mrs. Plinth stood up and gathered her expensive furs about her
+monumental form. “I have no wish to criticise,” she said; “but unless
+the Lunch Club can protect its members against the recurrence of
+such--such unbecoming scenes, I for one--”
+
+“Oh, so do I!” agreed Miss Glyde, rising also.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck closed the Encyclopaedia and proceeded to button herself
+into her jacket “My time is really too valuable--” she began.
+
+“I fancy we are all of one mind,” said Mrs. Ballinger, looking
+searchingly at Mrs. Leveret, who looked at the others.
+
+“I always deprecate anything like a scandal--” Mrs. Plinth continued.
+
+“She has been the cause of one to-day!” exclaimed Miss Glyde.
+
+Mrs. Leveret moaned: “I don’t see how she _could!_” and Miss Van Vluyck
+said, picking up her note-book: “Some women stop at nothing.”
+
+“--but if,” Mrs. Plinth took up her argument impressively, “anything
+of the kind had happened in _my_ house” (it never would have, her tone
+implied), “I should have felt that I owed it to myself either to ask for
+Mrs. Roby’s resignation--or to offer mine.”
+
+“Oh, Mrs. Plinth--” gasped the Lunch Club.
+
+“Fortunately for me,” Mrs. Plinth continued with an awful magnanimity,
+“the matter was taken out of my hands by our President’s decision that
+the right to entertain distinguished guests was a privilege vested in
+her office; and I think the other members will agree that, as she was
+alone in this opinion, she ought to be alone in deciding on the best way
+of effacing its--its really deplorable consequences.”
+
+A deep silence followed this outbreak of Mrs. Plinth’s long-stored
+resentment.
+
+“I don’t see why I should be expected to ask her to resign--” Mrs.
+Ballinger at length began; but Laura Glyde turned back to remind her:
+“You know she made you say that you’d got on swimmingly in Xingu.”
+
+An ill-timed giggle escaped from Mrs. Leveret, and Mrs. Ballinger
+energetically continued “--but you needn’t think for a moment that I’m
+afraid to!”
+
+The door of the drawing-room closed on the retreating backs of the
+Lunch Club, and the President of that distinguished association, seating
+herself at her writing-table, and pushing away a copy of “The Wings of
+Death” to make room for her elbow, drew forth a sheet of the club’s
+note-paper, on which she began to write: “My dear Mrs. Roby--”
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Xingu
+       1916
+
+Author: Edith Wharton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24131]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+XINGU
+
+By Edith Wharton
+
+Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as
+though it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded
+the Lunch Club, an association composed of herself and several other
+indomitable huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four
+winters of lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that
+the entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted
+functions; in recognition of which it duly extended to the celebrated
+"Osric Dane," on the day of her arrival in Hillbridge, an invitation to
+be present at the next meeting.
+
+The club was to meet at Mrs. Bellinger's. The other members, behind
+her back, were of one voice in deploring her unwillingness to cede
+her rights in favor of Mrs. Plinth, whose house made a more impressive
+setting for the entertainment of celebrities; while, as Mrs. Leveret
+observed, there was always the picture-gallery to fall back on.
+
+Mrs. Plinth made no secret of sharing this view. She had always regarded
+it as one of her obligations to entertain the Lunch Club's distinguished
+guests. Mrs. Plinth was almost as proud of her obligations as she was
+of her picture-gallery; she was in fact fond of implying that the one
+possession implied the other, and that only a woman of her wealth
+could afford to live up to a standard as high as that which she had set
+herself. An all-round sense of duty, roughly adaptable to various ends,
+was, in her opinion, all that Providence exacted of the more humbly
+stationed; but the power which had predestined Mrs. Plinth to keep a
+footman clearly intended her to maintain an equally specialized staff of
+responsibilities. It was the more to be regretted that Mrs. Ballinger,
+whose obligations to society were bounded by the narrow scope of two
+parlour-maids, should have been so tenacious of the right to entertain
+Osric Dane.
+
+The question of that lady's reception had for a month past profoundly
+moved the members of the Lunch Club. It was not that they felt
+themselves unequal to the task, but that their sense of the opportunity
+plunged them into the agreeable uncertainty of the lady who weighs the
+alternatives of a well-stocked wardrobe. If such subsidiary members as
+Mrs. Leveret were fluttered by the thought of exchanging ideas with the
+author of "The Wings of Death," no forebodings disturbed the conscious
+adequacy of Mrs. Plinth, Mrs. Ballinger and Miss Van Vluyck. "The Wings
+of Death" had, in fact, at Miss Van Vluyck's suggestion, been chosen as
+the subject of discussion at the last club meeting, and each member had
+thus been enabled to express her own opinion or to appropriate whatever
+sounded well in the comments of the others.
+
+Mrs. Roby alone had abstained from profiting by the opportunity; but it
+was now openly recognised that, as a member of the Lunch Club, Mrs. Roby
+was a failure. "It all comes," as Miss Van Vluyck put it, "of accepting
+a woman on a man's estimation." Mrs. Roby, returning to Hillbridge from
+a prolonged sojourn in exotic lands--the other ladies no longer took
+the trouble to remember where--had been heralded by the distinguished
+biologist, Professor Foreland, as the most agreeable woman he had ever
+met; and the members of the Lunch Club, impressed by an encomium
+that carried the weight of a diploma, and rashly assuming that the
+Professor's social sympathies would follow the line of his professional
+bent, had seized the chance of annexing a biological member. Their
+disillusionment was complete. At Miss Van Vluyck's first off-hand
+mention of the pterodactyl Mrs. Roby had confusedly murmured: "I know so
+little about metres--" and after that painful betrayal of incompetence
+she had prudently withdrawn from farther participation in the mental
+gymnastics of the club.
+
+"I suppose she flattered him," Miss Van Vluyck summed up--"or else it's
+the way she does her hair."
+
+The dimensions of Miss Van Vluyck's dining-room having restricted the
+membership of the club to six, the nonconductiveness of one member was
+a serious obstacle to the exchange of ideas, and some wonder had already
+been expressed that Mrs. Roby should care to live, as it were, on the
+intellectual bounty of the others. This feeling was increased by the
+discovery that she had not yet read "The Wings of Death." She owned
+to having heard the name of Osric Dane; but that--incredible as it
+appeared--was the extent of her acquaintance with the celebrated
+novelist. The ladies could not conceal their surprise; but Mrs.
+Ballinger, whose pride in the club made her wish to put even Mrs. Roby
+in the best possible light, gently insinuated that, though she had not
+had time to acquaint herself with "The Wings of Death," she must at
+least be familiar with its equally remarkable predecessor, "The Supreme
+Instant."
+
+Mrs. Roby wrinkled her sunny brows in a conscientious effort of memory,
+as a result of which she recalled that, oh, yes, she _had_ seen the book
+at her brother's, when she was staying with him in Brazil, and had even
+carried it off to read one day on a boating party; but they had all
+got to shying things at each other in the boat, and the book had gone
+overboard, so she had never had the chance--
+
+The picture evoked by this anecdote did not increase Mrs. Roby's credit
+with the club, and there was a painful pause, which was broken by Mrs.
+Plinth's remarking:
+
+"I can understand that, with all your other pursuits, you should not
+find much time for reading; but I should have thought you might at least
+have _got up_ 'The Wings of Death' before Osric Dane's arrival."
+
+Mrs. Roby took this rebuke good-humouredly. She had meant, she owned,
+to glance through the book; but she had been so absorbed in a novel of
+Trollope's that--
+
+"No one reads Trollope now," Mrs. Ballinger interrupted.
+
+Mrs. Roby looked pained. "I'm only just beginning," she confessed.
+
+"And does he interest you?" Mrs. Plinth enquired.
+
+"He amuses me."
+
+"Amusement," said Mrs. Plinth, "is hardly what I look for in my choice
+of books."
+
+"Oh, certainly, 'The Wings of Death' is not amusing," ventured Mrs.
+Leveret, whose manner of putting forth an opinion was like that of an
+obliging salesman with a variety of other styles to submit if his first
+selection does not suit.
+
+"Was it _meant_ to be?" enquired Mrs. Plinth, who was fond of asking
+questions that she permitted no one but herself to answer. "Assuredly
+not."
+
+"Assuredly not--that is what I was going to say," assented Mrs. Leveret,
+hastily rolling up her opinion and reaching for another. "It was meant
+to--to elevate."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck adjusted her spectacles as though they were the black
+cap of condemnation. "I hardly see," she interposed, "how a book steeped
+in the bitterest pessimism can be said to elevate however much it may
+instruct."
+
+"I meant, of course, to instruct," said Mrs. Leveret, flurried by the
+unexpected distinction between two terms which she had supposed to be
+synonymous. Mrs. Leveret's enjoyment of the Lunch Club was frequently
+marred by such surprises; and not knowing her own value to the other
+ladies as a mirror for their mental complacency she was sometimes
+troubled by a doubt of her worthiness to join in their debates. It was
+only the fact of having a dull sister who thought her clever that saved
+her, from a sense of hopeless inferiority.
+
+"Do they get married in the end?" Mrs. Roby interposed.
+
+"They--who?" the Lunch Club collectively exclaimed.
+
+"Why, the girl and man. It's a novel, isn't it? I always think that's
+the one thing that matters. If they're parted it spoils my dinner."
+
+Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Ballinger exchanged scandalised glances, and the
+latter said: "I should hardly advise you to read 'The Wings of Death'
+in that spirit. For my part, when there are so many books one _has_
+to read; I wonder how any one can find time for those that are merely
+amusing."
+
+"The beautiful part of it," Laura Glyde murmured, "is surely just
+this--that no one can tell how 'The Wings of Death' ends. Osric Dane,
+overcome by the awful significance of her own meaning, has mercifully
+veiled it--perhaps even from herself--as Apelles, in representing the
+sacrifice of Iphigenia, veiled the face of Agamemnon."
+
+"What's that? Is it poetry?" whispered Mrs. Leveret to Mrs. Plinth,
+who, disdaining a definite reply, said coldly: "You should look it up.
+I always make it a point to look things up." Her tone added--"though I
+might easily have it done for me by the footman."
+
+"I was about to say," Miss Van Vluyck resumed, "that it must always be a
+question whether a book _can_ instruct unless it elevates."
+
+"Oh--" murmured Mrs. Leveret, now feeling herself hopelessly astray.
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Ballinger, scenting in Miss Van Vluyck's tone
+a tendency to depreciate the coveted distinction of entertaining Osric
+Dane; "I don't know that such a question can seriously be raised as to a
+book which has attracted more attention among thoughtful people than any
+novel since 'Robert Elsmere.'"
+
+"Oh, but don't you see," exclaimed Laura Glyde, "that it's just the
+dark hopelessness of it all--the wonderful tone-scheme of black on
+black--that makes it such an artistic achievement? It reminded me when
+I read it of Prince Rupert's _mani�re noire_...the book is etched, not
+painted, yet one feels the colour-values so intensely...."
+
+"Who is he?" Mrs. Leveret whispered to her neighbour. "Some one she's
+met abroad?"
+
+"The wonderful part of the book," Mrs. Bellinger conceded, "is that it
+may be looked at from so many points of view. I hear that as a study of
+determinism Professor Lupton ranks it with 'The Data of Ethics.'"
+
+"I'm told that Osric Dane spent ten years in preparatory studies
+before beginning to write it," said Mrs. Plinth. "She looks up
+everything--verifies everything. It has always been my principle, as
+you know. Nothing would induce me, now, to put aside a book before I'd
+finished it, just because I can buy as many more as I want."
+
+"And what do _you_ think of 'The Wings of Death'?" Mrs. Roby abruptly
+asked her.
+
+It was the kind of question that might be termed out of order, and the
+ladies glanced at each other as though disclaiming any share in such
+a breach of discipline. They all knew there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so
+much disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written
+to read; if one read them what more could be expected? To be questioned
+in detail regarding the contents of a volume seemed to her as great an
+outrage as being searched for smuggled laces at the Custom House. The
+club had always respected this idiosyncrasy of Mrs. Plinth's. Such
+opinions as she had were imposing and substantial: her mind, like her
+house, was furnished with monumental "pieces" that were not meant to
+be disarranged; and it was one of the unwritten rules of the Lunch Club
+that, within her own province, each member's habits of thought should be
+respected. The meeting therefore closed with an increased sense, on the
+part of the other ladies, of Mrs. Roby's hopeless unfitness to be one of
+them.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Mrs. Leveret, on the eventful day, arrived early at Mrs. Ballinger's,
+her volume of Appropriate Allusions in her pocket.
+
+It always flustered Mrs. Leveret to be late at the Lunch Club: she liked
+to collect her thoughts and gather a hint, as the others assembled, of
+the turn the conversation was likely to take. To-day, however, she
+felt herself completely at a loss; and even the familiar contact of
+Appropriate Allusions, which stuck into her as she sat down, failed to
+give her any reassurance. It was an admirable little volume, compiled
+to meet all the social emergencies; so that, whether on the occasion
+of Anniversaries, joyful or melancholy (as the classification ran),
+of Banquets, social or municipal, or of Baptisms, Church of England
+or sectarian, its student need never be at a loss for a pertinent
+reference. Mrs. Leveret, though she had for years devoutly conned its
+pages, valued it, however, rather for its moral support than for its
+practical services; for though in the privacy of her own room she
+commanded an army of quotations, these invariably deserted her at the
+critical moment, and the only phrase she retained--_Canst thou draw out
+leviathan with a hook_?--was one she had never yet found occasion to
+apply.
+
+To-day she felt that even the complete mastery of the volume would
+hardly have insured her self-possession; for she thought it probable
+that, even if she _did_, in some miraculous way, remember an Allusion,
+it would be only to find that Osric Dane used a different volume (Mrs.
+Leveret was convinced that literary people always carried them), and
+would consequently not recognise her quotations.
+
+Mrs. Leveret's sense of being adrift was intensified by the appearance
+of Mrs. Ballinger's drawing-room. To a careless eye its aspect was
+unchanged; but those acquainted with Mrs. Ballinger's way of
+arranging her books would instantly have detected the marks of recent
+perturbation. Mrs. Ballinger's province, as a member of the Lunch Club,
+was the Book of the Day. On that, whatever it was, from a novel to
+a treatise on experimental psychology, she was confidently,
+authoritatively "up." What became of last year's books, or last week's
+even; what she did with the "subjects" she had previously professed with
+equal authority; no one had ever yet discovered. 'Her mind was an hotel
+where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their
+address behind, and frequently without paying for their board. It was
+Mrs. Ballinger's boast that she was "abreast with the Thought of the
+Day," and her pride that this advanced position should be expressed by
+the books on her table. These volumes, frequently renewed, and almost
+always damp from the press, bore names generally unfamiliar to Mrs.
+Leveret, and giving her, as she furtively scanned them, a disheartening
+glimpse of new fields of knowledge to be breathlessly traversed in Mrs.
+Ballinger's wake. But to-day a number of maturer-looking volumes were
+adroitly mingled with the _primeurs_ of the press--Karl Marx jostled
+Professor Bergson, and the "Confessions of St. Augustine" lay beside
+the last work on "Mendelism"; so that even to Mrs. Leveret's fluttered
+perceptions it was clear that Mrs. Ballinger didn't in the least know
+what Osric Dane was likely to talk about, and had taken measures to be
+prepared for anything. Mrs. Leveret felt like a passenger on an ocean
+steamer who is told that there is no immediate danger, but that she had
+better put on her life-belt.
+
+It was a relief to be roused from these forebodings by Miss Van Vluyck's
+arrival.
+
+"Well, my dear," the new-comer briskly asked her hostess, "what subjects
+are we to discuss to-day?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger was furtively replacing a volume of Wordsworth by a copy
+of Verlaine. "I hardly know," she said, somewhat nervously. "Perhaps we
+had better leave that to circumstances."
+
+"Circumstances?" said Miss Van Vluyck drily. "That means, I suppose,
+that Laura Glyde will take the floor as usual, and we shall be deluged
+with literature."
+
+Philanthropy and statistics were Miss Van Vluyck's province, and she
+resented any tendency to divert their guest's attention from these
+topics.
+
+Mrs. Plinth at this moment appeared.
+
+"Literature?" she protested in a tone of remonstrance. "But this is
+perfectly unexpected. I understood we were to talk of Osric Dane's
+novel."
+
+Mrs. Ballinger winced at the discrimination, but let it pass. "We can
+hardly make that our chief subject--at least not _too_ intentionally,"
+she suggested. "Of course we can let our talk _drift_ in that direction;
+but we ought to have some other topic as an introduction, and that is
+what I wanted to consult you about. The fact is, we know so little
+of Osric Dane's tastes and interests that it is difficult to make any
+special preparation."
+
+"It may be difficult," said Mrs. Plinth with decision, "but it is
+necessary. I know what that happy-go-lucky principle leads to. As I told
+one of my nieces the other day, there are certain emergencies for which
+a lady should always be prepared. It's in shocking taste to wear colours
+when one pays a visit of condolence, or a last year's dress when there
+are reports that one's husband is on the wrong side of the market; and
+so it is with conversation. All I ask is that I should know beforehand
+what is to be talked about; then I feel sure of being able to say the
+proper thing."
+
+"I quite agree with you," Mrs. Ballinger assented; "but--"
+
+And at that instant, heralded by the fluttered parlourmaid, Osric Dane
+appeared upon the threshold.
+
+Mrs. Leveret told her sister afterward that she had known at a glance
+what was coming. She saw that Osric Dane was not going to meet them
+half way. That distinguished personage had indeed entered with an air of
+compulsion not calculated to promote the easy exercise of hospitality.
+She looked as though she were about to be photographed for a new edition
+of her books.
+
+The desire to propitiate a divinity is generally in inverse ratio to its
+responsiveness, and the sense of discouragement produced by Osric Dane's
+entrance visibly increased the Lunch Club's eagerness to please her. Any
+lingering idea that she might consider herself under an obligation to
+her entertainers was at once dispelled by her manner: as Mrs. Leveret
+said afterward to her sister, she had a way of looking at you that made
+you feel as if there was something wrong with your hat. This evidence
+of greatness produced such an immediate impression on the ladies that a
+shudder of awe ran through them when Mrs. Roby, as their hostess led
+the great personage into the dining-room, turned back to whisper to the
+others: "What a brute she is!"
+
+The hour about the table did not tend to revise this verdict. It was
+passed by Osric Dane in the silent deglutition of Mrs. Bollinger's menu,
+and by the members of the club in the emission of tentative platitudes
+which their guest seemed to swallow as perfunctorily as the successive
+courses of the luncheon.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger's reluctance to fix a topic had thrown the club into a
+mental disarray which increased with the return to the drawing-room,
+where the actual business of discussion was to open. Each lady waited
+for the other to speak; and there was a general shock of disappointment
+when their hostess opened the conversation by the painfully commonplace
+enquiry. "Is this your first visit to Hillbridge?"
+
+Even Mrs. Leveret was conscious that this was a bad beginning; and a
+vague impulse of deprecation made Miss Glyde interject: "It is a very
+small place indeed."
+
+Mrs. Plinth bristled. "We have a great many representative people," she
+said, in the tone of one who speaks for her order.
+
+Osric Dane turned to her. "What do they represent?" she asked.
+
+Mrs. Plinth's constitutional dislike to being questioned was intensified
+by her sense of unpreparedness; and her reproachful glance passed the
+question on to Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Why," said that lady, glancing in turn at the other members, "as a
+community I hope it is not too much to say that we stand for culture."
+
+"For art--" Miss Glyde interjected.
+
+"For art and literature," Mrs. Ballinger emended.
+
+"And for sociology, I trust," snapped Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+"We have a standard," said Mrs. Plinth, feeling herself suddenly secure
+on the vast expanse of a generalisation; and Mrs. Leveret, thinking
+there must be room for more than one on so broad a statement, took
+courage to murmur: "Oh, certainly; we have a standard."
+
+"The object of our little club," Mrs. Ballinger continued, "is to
+concentrate the highest tendencies of Hillbridge--to centralise and
+focus its intellectual effort."
+
+This was felt to be so happy that the ladies drew an almost audible
+breath of relief.
+
+"We aspire," the President went on, "to be in touch with whatever is
+highest in art, literature and ethics."
+
+Osric Dane again turned to her. "What ethics?" she asked.
+
+A tremor of apprehension encircled the room. None of the ladies required
+any preparation to pronounce on a question of morals; but when they
+were called ethics it was different. The club, when fresh from
+the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," the "Reader's Handbook" or Smith's
+"Classical Dictionary," could deal confidently with any subject; but
+when taken unawares it had been known to define agnosticism as a heresy
+of the Early Church and Professor Froude as a distinguished histologist;
+and such minor members as Mrs. Leveret still secretly regarded ethics as
+something vaguely pagan.
+
+Even to Mrs. Ballinger, Osric Dane's question was unsettling, and there
+was a general sense of gratitude when Laura Glyde leaned forward to say,
+with her most sympathetic accent: "You must excuse us, Mrs. Dane, for
+not being able, just at present, to talk of anything but 'The Wings of
+Death."'
+
+"Yes," said Miss Van Vluyck, with a sudden resolve to carry the war into
+the enemy's camp. "We are so anxious to know the exact purpose you had
+in mind in writing your wonderful book."
+
+"You will find," Mrs. Plinth interposed, "that we are not superficial
+readers."
+
+"We are eager to hear from you," Miss Van Vluyck continued, "if
+the pessimistic tendency of the book is an expression of your own
+convictions or--"
+
+"Or merely," Miss Glyde thrust in, "a sombre background brushed in
+to throw your figures into more vivid relief. _Are_ you not primarily
+plastic?"
+
+"I have always maintained," Mrs. Ballinger interposed, "that you
+represent the purely objective method--"
+
+Osric Dane helped herself critically to coffee. "How do you define
+objective?" she then enquired.
+
+There was a flurried pause before Laura Glyde intensely murmured: "In
+reading _you_ we don't define, we feel."
+
+Otsric Dane smiled. "The cerebellum," she remarked, "is not infrequently
+the seat of the literary emotions." And she took a second lump of sugar.
+
+The sting that this remark was vaguely felt to conceal was almost
+neutralised by the satisfaction of being addressed in such technical
+language.
+
+"Ah, the cerebellum," said Miss Van Vluyck complacently. "The club took
+a course in psychology last winter."
+
+"Which psychology?" asked Osric Dane.
+
+There was an agonising pause, during which each member of the club
+secretly deplored the distressing inefficiency of the others. Only Mrs.
+Roby went on placidly sipping her chartreuse. At last Mrs. Ballinger
+said, with an attempt at a high tone: "Well, really, you know, it was
+last year that we took psychology, and this winter we have been so
+absorbed in--"
+
+She broke off, nervously trying to recall some of the club's
+discussions; but her faculties seemed to be paralysed by the petrifying
+stare of Osric Dane. What _had_ the club been absorbed in? Mrs.
+Ballinger, with a vague purpose of gaining time, repeated slowly: "We've
+been so intensely absorbed in--"
+
+Mrs. Roby put down her liqueur glass and drew near the group with a
+smile.
+
+"In Xingu?" she gently prompted.
+
+A thrill ran through the other members. They exchanged confused
+glances, and then, with one accord, turned a gaze of mingled relief
+and interrogation on their rescuer. The expression of each denoted
+a different phase of the same emotion. Mrs. Plinth was the first to
+compose her features to an air of reassurance: after a moment's hasty
+adjustment her look almost implied that it was she who had given the
+word to Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Xingu, of course!" exclaimed the latter with her accustomed promptness,
+while Miss Van Vluyck and Laura Glyde seemed to be plumbing the depths
+of memory, and Mrs. Leveret, feeling apprehensively for Appropriate
+Allusions, was somehow reassured by the uncomfortable pressure of its
+bulk against her person.
+
+Osric Dane's change of countenance was no less striking than that of
+her entertainers. She too put down her coffee-cup, but with a look of
+distinct annoyance; she too wore, for a brief moment, what Mrs. Roby
+afterward described as the look of feeling for something in the back
+of her head; and before she could dissemble these momentary signs of
+weakness, Mrs. Roby, turning to her with a deferential smile, had said:
+"And we've been so hoping that to-day you would tell us just what you
+think of it."
+
+Osric Dane received the homage of the smile as a matter of course; but
+the accompanying question obviously embarrassed her, and it became clear
+to her observers that she was not quick at shifting her facial scenery.
+It was as though her countenance had so long been set in an expression
+of unchallenged superiority that the muscles had stiffened, and refused
+to obey her orders.
+
+"Xingu--" she said, as if seeking in her turn to gain time.
+
+Mrs. Roby continued to press her. "Knowing how engrossing the subject
+is, you will understand how it happens that the club has let everything
+else go to the wall for the moment. Since we took up Xingu I might
+almost say--were it not for your books--that nothing else seems to us
+worth remembering."
+
+Osric Dane's stern features were darkened rather than lit up by an
+uneasy smile. "I am glad to hear that you make one exception," she gave
+out between narrowed lips.
+
+"Oh, of course," Mrs. Roby said prettily; "but as you have shown us
+that--so very naturally!--you don't care to talk of your own things, we
+really can't let you off from telling us exactly what you think about
+Xingu; especially," she added, with a still more persuasive smile, "as
+some people say that one of your last books was saturated with it."
+
+It was an _it_, then--the assurance sped like fire through the parched
+minds of the other members. In their eagerness to gain the least
+little clue to Xingu they almost forgot the joy of assisting at the
+discomfiture of Mrs. Dane.
+
+The latter reddened nervously under her antagonist's challenge. "May I
+ask," she faltered out, "to which of my books you refer?"
+
+Mrs. Roby did not falter. "That's just what I want you to tell us;
+because, though I was present, I didn't actually take part."
+
+"Present at what?" Mrs. Dane took her up; and for an instant the
+trembling members of the Lunch Club thought that the champion Providence
+had raised up for them had lost a point. But Mrs. Roby explained herself
+gaily: "At the discussion, of course. And so we're dreadfully anxious to
+know just how it was that you went into the Xingu."
+
+There was a portentous pause, a silence so big with incalculable dangers
+that the members with one accord checked the words on their lips, like
+soldiers dropping their arms to watch a single combat between their
+leaders. Then Mrs. Dane gave expression to their inmost dread by saying
+sharply: "Ah--you say _the_ Xingu, do you?"
+
+Mrs. Roby smiled undauntedly. "It is a shade pedantic, isn't it?
+Personally, I always drop the article; but I don't know how the other
+members feel about it."
+
+The other members looked as though they would willingly have dispensed
+with this appeal to their opinion, and Mrs. Roby, after a bright glance
+about the group, went on: "They probably think, as I do, that nothing
+really matters except the thing itself--except Xingu."
+
+No immediate reply seemed to occur to Mrs. Dane, and Mrs. Ballinger
+gathered courage to say: "Surely every one must feel that about Xingu."
+
+Mrs. Plinth came to her support with a heavy murmur of assent, and Laura
+Glyde sighed out emotionally: "I have known cases where it has changed a
+whole life."
+
+"It has done me worlds of good," Mrs. Leveret interjected, seeming to
+herself to remember that she had either taken it or read it the winter
+before.
+
+"Of course," Mrs. Roby admitted, "the difficulty is that one must give
+up so much time to it. It's very long."
+
+"I can't imagine," said Miss Van Vluyck, "grudging the time given to
+such a subject."
+
+"And deep in places," Mrs. Roby pursued; (so then it was a book!) "And
+it isn't easy to skip."
+
+"I never skip," said Mrs. Plinth dogmatically.
+
+"Ah, it's dangerous to, in Xingu. Even at the start there are places
+where one can't. One must just wade through."
+
+"I should hardly call it _wading_," said Mrs. Ballinger sarcastically.
+
+Mrs. Roby sent her a look of interest. "Ah--you always found it went
+swimmingly?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger hesitated. "Of course there are difficult passages," she
+conceded.
+
+"Yes; some are not at all clear--even," Mrs. Roby added, "if one is
+familiar with the original."
+
+"As I suppose you are?" Osric Dane interposed, suddenly fixing her with
+a look of challenge.
+
+Mrs. Roby met it by a deprecating gesture. "Oh, it's really not
+difficult up to a certain point; though some of the branches are very
+little known, and it's almost impossible to get at the source."
+
+"Have you ever tried?" Mrs. Plinth enquired, still distrustful of Mrs.
+Roby's thoroughness.
+
+Mrs. Roby was silent for a moment; then she replied with lowered lids:
+"No--but a friend of mine did; a very brilliant man; and he told me it
+was best for women--not to...."
+
+A shudder ran around the room. Mrs. Leveret coughed so that the
+parlour-maid, who was handing the cigarettes, should not hear; Miss Van
+Vluyck's face took on a nauseated expression, and Mrs. Plinth looked as
+if she were passing some one she did not care to bow to. But the most
+remarkable result of Mrs. Roby's words was the effect they produced on
+the Lunch Club's distinguished guest. Osric Dane's impassive features
+suddenly softened to an expression of the warmest human sympathy, and
+edging her chair toward Mrs. Roby's she asked: "Did he really? And--did
+you find he was right?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger, in whom annoyance at Mrs. Roby's unwonted assumption
+of prominence was beginning to displace gratitude for the aid she had
+rendered, could not consent to her being allowed, by such dubious means,
+to monopolise the attention of their guest. If Osric Dane had not enough
+self-respect to resent Mrs. Roby's flippancy, at least the Lunch Club
+would do so in the person of its President.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger laid her hand on Mrs. Roby's arm. "We must not forget,"
+she said with a frigid amiability, "that absorbing as Xingu is to _us_,
+it may be less interesting to--"
+
+"Oh, no, on the contrary, I assure you," Osric Dane intervened.
+
+"--to others," Mrs. Ballinger finished firmly; "and we must not allow
+our little meeting to end without persuading Mrs. Dane to say a few
+words to us on a subject which, to-day, is much more present in all our
+thoughts. I refer, of course, to 'The Wings of Death.'"
+
+The other members, animated by various degrees of the same sentiment,
+and encouraged by the humanised mien of their redoubtable guest,
+repeated after Mrs. Ballinger: "Oh, yes, you really _must_ talk to us a
+little about your book."
+
+Osric Dane's expression became as bored, though not as haughty, as when
+her work had been previously mentioned. But before she could respond
+to Mrs. Ballinger's request, Mrs. Roby had risen from her seat, and was
+pulling down her veil over her frivolous nose.
+
+"I'm so sorry," she said, advancing toward her hostess with outstretched
+hand, "but before Mrs. Dane begins I think I'd better run away.
+Unluckily, as you know, I haven't read her books, so I should be at a
+terrible disadvantage among you all, and besides, I've an engagement to
+play bridge."
+
+If Mrs. Roby had simply pleaded her ignorance of Osric Dane's works as
+a reason for withdrawing, the Lunch Club, in view of her recent prowess,
+might have approved such evidence of discretion; but to couple this
+excuse with the brazen announcement that she was foregoing the privilege
+for the purpose of joining a bridge-party was only one more instance of
+her deplorable lack of discrimination.
+
+The ladies were disposed, however, to feel that her departure--now
+that she had performed the sole service she was ever likely to render
+them--would probably make for greater order and dignity in the impending
+discussion, besides relieving them of the sense of self-distrust which
+her presence always mysteriously produced. Mrs. Ballinger therefore
+restricted herself to a formal murmur of regret, and the other members
+were just grouping themselves comfortably about Osric Dane when the
+latter, to their dismay, started up from the sofa on which she had been
+seated.
+
+"Oh wait--do wait, and I'll go with you!" she called out to Mrs. Roby;
+and, seizing the hands of the disconcerted members, she administered
+a series of farewell pressures with the mechanical haste of a
+railway-conductor punching tickets.
+
+"I'm so sorry--I'd quite forgotten--" she flung back at them from the
+threshold; and as she joined Mrs. Roby, who had turned in surprise at
+her appeal, the other ladies had the mortification of hearing her say,
+in a voice which she did not take the pains to lower: "If you'll let
+me walk a little way with you, I should so like to ask you a few more
+questions about Xingu...."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+The incident had been so rapid that the door closed on the departing
+pair before the other members had time to understand what was
+happening. Then a sense of the indignity put upon them by Osric Dane's
+unceremonious desertion began to contend with the confused feeling that
+they had been cheated out of their due without exactly knowing how or
+why.
+
+There was a silence, during which Mrs. Ballinger, with a perfunctory
+hand, rearranged the skilfully grouped literature at which her
+distinguished guest had not so much as glanced; then Miss Van Vluyck
+tartly pronounced: "Well, I can't say that I consider Osric Dane's
+departure a great loss."
+
+This confession crystallised the resentment of the other members, and
+Mrs. Leveret exclaimed: "I do believe she came on purpose to be nasty!"
+
+It was Mrs. Plinth's private opinion that Osric Dane's attitude toward
+the Lunch Club might have been very different had it welcomed her in the
+majestic setting of the Plinth drawing-rooms; but not liking to reflect
+on the inadequacy of Mrs. Ballinger's establishment she sought a
+roundabout satisfaction in depreciating her lack of foresight.
+
+"I said from the first that we ought to have had a subject ready. It's
+what always happens when you're unprepared. Now if we'd only got up
+Xingu--"
+
+The slowness of Mrs. Plinth's mental processes was always allowed for
+by the club; but this instance of it was too much for Mrs. Ballinger's
+equanimity.
+
+"Xingu!" she scoffed. "Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more
+about it than she did--unprepared though we were--that made Osric Dane
+so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to everybody!"
+
+This retort impressed even Mrs. Plinth, and Laura Glyde, moved by an
+impulse of generosity, said: "Yes, we really ought to be grateful
+to Mrs. Roby for introducing the topic. It may have made Osric Dane
+furious, but at least it made her civil."
+
+"I am glad we were able to show her," added Miss Van Vluyck, "that a
+broad and up-to-date culture is not confined to the great intellectual
+centres."
+
+This increased the satisfaction of the other members, and they began
+to forget their wrath against Osric Dane in the pleasure of having
+contributed to her discomfiture.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck thoughtfully rubbed her spectacles. "What surprised me
+most," she continued, "was that Fanny Roby should be so up on Xingu."
+
+This remark threw a slight chill on the company, but Mrs. Ballinger
+said with an air of indulgent irony: "Mrs. Roby always has the knack of
+making a little go a long way; still, we certainly owe her a debt for
+happening to remember that she'd heard of Xingu." And this was felt by
+the other members to be a graceful way of cancelling once for all the
+club's obligation to Mrs. Roby.
+
+Even Mrs. Leveret took courage to speed a timid shaft of irony. "I fancy
+Osric Dane hardly expected to take a lesson in Xingu at Hillbridge!"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger smiled. "When she asked me what we represented--do you
+remember?--I wish I'd simply said we represented Xingu!"
+
+All the ladies laughed appreciatively at this sally, except Mrs. Plinth,
+who said, after a moment's deliberation: "I'm not sure it would have
+been wise to do so."
+
+Mrs. Ballinger, who was already beginning to feel as if she had
+launched at Osric Dane the retort which had just occurred to her, turned
+ironically on Mrs. Plinth. "May I ask why?" she enquired.
+
+Mrs. Plinth looked grave. "Surely," she said, "I understood from Mrs.
+Roby herself that the subject was one it was as well not to go into too
+deeply?"
+
+Miss Van Vluyck rejoined with precision: "I think that applied only to
+an investigation of the origin of the--of the--"; and suddenly she found
+that her usually accurate memory had failed her. "It's a part of the
+subject I never studied myself/," she concluded.
+
+"Nor I," said Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+Laura Glyde bent toward them with widened eyes. "And yet it
+seems--doesn't it?--the part that is fullest of an esoteric
+fascination?"
+
+"I don't know on what you base that," said Miss Van Vluyck
+argumentatively.
+
+"Well, didn't you notice how intensely interested Osric Dane became as
+soon as she heard what the brilliant foreigner--he _was_ a foreigner,
+wasn't he?--had told Mrs. Roby about the origin--the origin of the
+rite--or whatever you call it?"
+
+Mrs. Plinth looked disapproving, and Mrs. Ballinger visibly wavered.
+Then she said: "It may not be desirable to touch on the--on that part
+of the subject in general conversation; but, from the importance it
+evidently has to a woman of Osric Dane's distinction, I feel as if
+we ought not to be afraid to discuss it among ourselves--without
+gloves--though with closed doors, if necessary."
+
+"I'm quite of your opinion," Miss Van Vluyck came briskly to her
+support; "on condition, that is, that all grossness of language is
+avoided."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure we shall understand without that," Mrs. Leveret tittered;
+and Laura Glyde added significantly: "I fancy we can read between the
+lines," while Mrs. Ballinger rose to assure herself that the doors
+were really closed.
+
+Mrs. Plinth had not yet given her adhesion. "I hardly see," she
+began, "what benefit is to be derived from investigating such peculiar
+customs--"
+
+But Mrs. Ballinger's patience had reached the extreme limit of tension.
+"This at least," she returned; "that we shall not be placed again in the
+humiliating position of finding ourselves less up on our own subjects
+than Fanny Roby!"
+
+Even to Mrs. Plinth this argument was conclusive. She peered furtively
+about the room and lowered her commanding tones to ask: "Have you got a
+copy?"
+
+"A--a copy?" stammered Mrs. Ballinger. She was aware that the other
+members were looking at her expectantly, and that this answer was
+inadequate, so she supported it by asking another question. "A copy of
+what?"
+
+Her companions bent their expectant gaze on Mrs. Plinth, who, in turn,
+appeared less sure of herself than usual. "Why, of--of--the book," she
+explained.
+
+"What book?" snapped Miss Van Vluyck, almost as sharply as Osric Dane.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger looked at Laura Glyde, whose eyes were interrogatively
+fixed on Mrs. Leveret. The fact of being deferred to was so new to
+the latter that it filled her with an insane temerity. "Why, Xingu, of
+course!" she exclaimed.
+
+A profound silence followed this challenge to the resources of Mrs.
+Ballinger's library, and the latter, after glancing nervously toward the
+Books of the Day, returned with dignity: "It's not a thing one cares to
+leave about."
+
+"I should think not!" exclaimed Mrs. Plinth.
+
+"It _is_ a book, then?" said Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+This again threw the company into disarray, and Mrs. Ballinger, with an
+impatient sigh, rejoined: "Why--there _is_ a book--naturally...."
+
+"Then why did Miss Glyde call it a religion?"
+
+Laura Glyde started up. "A religion? I never--"
+
+"Yes, you did," Miss Van Vluyck insisted; "you spoke of rites; and Mrs.
+Plinth said it was a custom."
+
+Miss Glyde was evidently making a desperate effort to recall her
+statement; but accuracy of detail was not her strongest point. At length
+she began in a deep murmur: "Surely they used to do something of the
+kind at the Eleusinian mysteries--"
+
+"Oh--" said Miss Van Vluyck, on the verge of disapproval; and Mrs.
+Plinth protested: "I understood there was to be no indelicacy!"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger could not control her irritation. "Really, it is too
+bad that we should not be able to talk the matter over quietly among
+ourselves. Personally, I think that if one goes into Xingu at all--"
+
+"Oh, so do I!" cried Miss Glyde.
+
+"And I don't see how one can avoid doing so, if one wishes to keep up
+with the Thought of the Day--"
+
+Mrs. Leveret uttered an exclamation of relief. "There--that's it!" she
+interposed.
+
+"What's it?" the President took her up.
+
+"Why--it's a--a Thought: I mean a philosophy."
+
+This seemed to bring a certain relief to Mrs. Ballinger and Laura Glyde,
+but Miss Van Vluyck said: "Excuse me if I tell you that you're all
+mistaken. Xingu happens to be a language."
+
+"A language!" the Lunch Club cried.
+
+"Certainly. Don't you remember Fanny Roby's saying that there were
+several branches, and that some were hard to trace? What could that
+apply to but dialects?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger could no longer restrain a contemptuous laugh. "Really,
+if the Lunch Club has reached such a pass that it has to go to Fanny
+Roby for instruction on a subject like Xingu, it had almost better cease
+to exist!"
+
+"It's really her fault for not being clearer," Laura Glyde put in.
+
+"Oh, clearness and Fanny Roby!" Mrs. Ballinger shrugged. "I daresay we
+shall find she was mistaken on almost every point."
+
+"Why not look it up?" said Mrs. Plinth.
+
+As a rule this recurrent suggestion of Mrs. Plinth's was ignored in the
+heat of discussion, and only resorted to afterward in the privacy of
+each member's home. But on the present occasion the desire to ascribe
+their own confusion of thought to the vague and contradictory nature of
+Mrs. Roby's statements caused the members of the Lunch Club to utter a
+collective demand for a book of reference.
+
+At this point the production of her treasured volume gave Mrs. Leveret,
+for a moment, the unusual experience of occupying the centre front; but
+she was not able to hold it long, for Appropriate Allusions contained no
+mention of Xingu.
+
+"Oh, that's not the kind of thing we want!" exclaimed Miss Van Vluyck.
+She cast a disparaging glance over Mrs. Ballinger's assortment of
+literature, and added impatiently: "Haven't you any useful books?"
+
+"Of course I have," replied Mrs. Ballinger indignantly; "I keep them in
+my husband's dressing-room."
+
+From this region, after some difficulty and delay, the parlour-maid
+produced the W-Z volume of an Encyclopaedia and, in deference to the
+fact that the demand for it had come from Miss Van Vluyck, laid the
+ponderous tome before her.
+
+There was a moment of painful suspense while Miss Van Vluyck rubbed her
+spectacles, adjusted them, and turned to Z; and a murmur of surprise
+when she said: "It isn't here."
+
+"I suppose," said Mrs. Plinth, "it's not fit to be put in a book of
+reference."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Ballinger. "Try X."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck turned back through the volume, peering short-sightedly
+up and down the pages, till she came to a stop and remained motionless,
+like a dog on a point.
+
+"Well, have you found it?" Mrs. Ballinger enquired after a considerable
+delay.
+
+"Yes. I've found it," said Miss Van Vluyck in a queer voice.
+
+Mrs. Plinth hastily interposed: "I beg you won't read it aloud if
+there's anything offensive."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck, without answering, continued her silent scrutiny.
+
+"Well, what _is_ it?" exclaimed Laura Glyde excitedly.
+
+"_Do_ tell us!" urged Mrs. Leveret, feeling that she would have
+something awful to tell her sister.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck pushed the volume aside and turned slowly toward the
+expectant group.
+
+"It's a river."
+
+"A _river?_"
+
+"Yes: in Brazil. Isn't that where she's been living?"
+
+"Who? Fanny Roby? Oh, but you must be mistaken. You've been reading the
+wrong thing," Mrs. Ballinger exclaimed, leaning over her to seize the
+volume.
+
+"It's the only Xingu in the Encyclopaedia; and she _has_ been living in
+Brazil," Miss Van Vluyck persisted.
+
+"Yes: her brother has a consulship there," Mrs. Leveret interposed.
+
+"But it's too ridiculous! I--we--why we _all_ remember studying Xingu
+last year--or the year before last," Mrs. Ballinger stammered.
+
+"I thought I did when _you_ said so," Laura Glyde avowed.
+
+"I said so?" cried Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Yes. You said it had crowded everything else out of your mind."
+
+"Well _you_ said it had changed your whole life!"
+
+"For that matter. Miss Van Vluyck said she had never grudged the time
+she'd given it."
+
+Mrs. Plinth interposed: "I made it clear that I knew nothing whatever of
+the original."
+
+Mrs. Ballinger broke off the dispute with a groan. "Oh, what does it
+all matter if she's been making fools of us? I believe Miss Van Vluyck's
+right--she was talking of the river all the while!"
+
+"How could she? It's too preposterous," Miss Glyde exclaimed.
+
+"Listen." Miss Van Vluyck had repossessed herself of the Encyclopaedia,
+and restored her spectacles to a nose reddened by excitement. "'The
+Xingu, one of the principal rivers of Brazil, rises on the plateau of
+Mato Grosso, and flows in a northerly direction for a length of no less
+than one thousand one hundred and eighteen miles, entering the Amazon
+near the mouth of the latter river. The upper course of the Xingu is
+auriferous and fed by numerous branches. Its source was first discovered
+in 1884 by the German explorer von den Steinen, after a difficult and
+dangerous expedition through a region inhabited by tribes still in the
+Stone Age of culture.'"
+
+The ladies received this communication in a state of stupefied silence
+from which Mrs. Leveret was the first to rally. "She certainly _did_
+speak of its having branches."
+
+The word seemed to snap the last thread of their incredulity. "And of
+its great length," gasped Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"She said it was awfully deep, and you couldn't skip--you just had to
+wade through," Miss Glyde added.
+
+The idea worked its way more slowly through Mrs. Plinth's compact
+resistances. "How could there be anything improper about a river?" she
+enquired.
+
+"Improper?"
+
+"Why, what she said about the source--that it was corrupt?"
+
+"Not corrupt, but hard to get at," Laura Glyde corrected. "Some
+one who'd been there had told her so. I daresay it was the explorer
+himself--doesn't it say the expedition was dangerous?"
+
+"'Difficult and dangerous,'" read Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. "There's
+nothing she said that wouldn't apply to a river--to this river!" She
+swung about excitedly to the other members. "Why, do you remember her
+telling us that she hadn't read 'The Supreme Instant' because she'd
+taken it on a boating party while she was staying with her brother,
+and some one had 'shied' it overboard--'shied' of course was her own
+expression."
+
+The ladies breathlessly signified that the expression had not escaped
+them.
+
+"Well--and then didn't she tell Osric Dane that one of her books was
+simply saturated with Xingu? Of course it was, if one of Mrs. Roby's
+rowdy friends had thrown it into the river!"
+
+This surprising reconstruction of the scene in which they had just
+participated left the members of the Lunch Club inarticulate. At length,
+Mrs. Plinth, after visibly labouring with the problem, said in a heavy
+tone: "Osric Dane was taken in too."
+
+Mrs. Leveret took courage at this. "Perhaps that's what Mrs. Roby did
+it for. She said Osric Dane was a brute, and she may have wanted to give
+her a lesson."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck frowned. "It was hardly worth while to do it at our
+expense."
+
+"At least," said Miss Glyde with a touch of bitterness, "she succeeded
+in interesting her, which was more than we did."
+
+"What chance had we?" rejoined Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Mrs. Roby monopolised her from the first. And _that_, I've no doubt,
+was her purpose--to give Osric Dane a false impression of her own
+standing in the club. She would hesitate at nothing to attract
+attention: we all know how she took in poor Professor Foreland."
+
+"She actually makes him give bridge-teas every Thursday," Mrs. Leveret
+piped up.
+
+Laura Glyde struck her hands together. "Why, this is Thursday, and it's
+_there_ she's gone, of course; and taken Osric with her!"
+
+"And they're shrieking over us at this moment," said Mrs. Ballinger
+between her teeth.
+
+This possibility seemed too preposterous to be admitted. "She would
+hardly dare," said Miss Van Vluyck, "confess the imposture to Osric
+Dane."
+
+"I'm not so sure: I thought I saw her make a sign as she left. If she
+hadn't made a sign, why should Osric Dane have rushed out after her?"
+
+"Well, you know, we'd all been telling her how wonderful Xingu was, and
+she said she wanted to find out more about it," Mrs. Leveret said, with
+a tardy impulse of justice to the absent.
+
+This reminder, far from mitigating the wrath of the other members, gave
+it a stronger impetus.
+
+"Yes--and that's exactly what they're both laughing over now," said
+Laura Glyde ironically.
+
+Mrs. Plinth stood up and gathered her expensive furs about her
+monumental form. "I have no wish to criticise," she said; "but unless
+the Lunch Club can protect its members against the recurrence of
+such--such unbecoming scenes, I for one--"
+
+"Oh, so do I!" agreed Miss Glyde, rising also.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck closed the Encyclopaedia and proceeded to button herself
+into her jacket "My time is really too valuable--" she began.
+
+"I fancy we are all of one mind," said Mrs. Ballinger, looking
+searchingly at Mrs. Leveret, who looked at the others.
+
+"I always deprecate anything like a scandal--" Mrs. Plinth continued.
+
+"She has been the cause of one to-day!" exclaimed Miss Glyde.
+
+Mrs. Leveret moaned: "I don't see how she _could!_" and Miss Van Vluyck
+said, picking up her note-book: "Some women stop at nothing."
+
+"--but if," Mrs. Plinth took up her argument impressively, "anything
+of the kind had happened in _my_ house" (it never would have, her tone
+implied), "I should have felt that I owed it to myself either to ask for
+Mrs. Roby's resignation--or to offer mine."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Plinth--" gasped the Lunch Club.
+
+"Fortunately for me," Mrs. Plinth continued with an awful magnanimity,
+"the matter was taken out of my hands by our President's decision that
+the right to entertain distinguished guests was a privilege vested in
+her office; and I think the other members will agree that, as she was
+alone in this opinion, she ought to be alone in deciding on the best way
+of effacing its--its really deplorable consequences."
+
+A deep silence followed this outbreak of Mrs. Plinth's long-stored
+resentment.
+
+"I don't see why I should be expected to ask her to resign--" Mrs.
+Ballinger at length began; but Laura Glyde turned back to remind her:
+"You know she made you say that you'd got on swimmingly in Xingu."
+
+An ill-timed giggle escaped from Mrs. Leveret, and Mrs. Ballinger
+energetically continued "--but you needn't think for a moment that I'm
+afraid to!"
+
+The door of the drawing-room closed on the retreating backs of the
+Lunch Club, and the President of that distinguished association, seating
+herself at her writing-table, and pushing away a copy of "The Wings of
+Death" to make room for her elbow, drew forth a sheet of the club's
+note-paper, on which she began to write: "My dear Mrs. Roby--"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
+***** This file should be named 24131-8.txt or 24131-8.zip *****
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Xingu
+       1916
+
+Author: Edith Wharton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24131]
+Last Updated: October 3, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      XINGU
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Edith Wharton <br /><br /> Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner&rsquo;s Sons
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though
+      it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded the Lunch
+      Club, an association composed of herself and several other indomitable
+      huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four winters of
+      lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that the
+      entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted
+      functions; in recognition of which it duly extended to the celebrated
+      &ldquo;Osric Dane,&rdquo; on the day of her arrival in Hillbridge, an invitation to be
+      present at the next meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The club was to meet at Mrs. Bellinger&rsquo;s. The other members, behind her
+      back, were of one voice in deploring her unwillingness to cede her rights
+      in favor of Mrs. Plinth, whose house made a more impressive setting for
+      the entertainment of celebrities; while, as Mrs. Leveret observed, there
+      was always the picture-gallery to fall back on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth made no secret of sharing this view. She had always regarded
+      it as one of her obligations to entertain the Lunch Club&rsquo;s distinguished
+      guests. Mrs. Plinth was almost as proud of her obligations as she was of
+      her picture-gallery; she was in fact fond of implying that the one
+      possession implied the other, and that only a woman of her wealth could
+      afford to live up to a standard as high as that which she had set herself.
+      An all-round sense of duty, roughly adaptable to various ends, was, in her
+      opinion, all that Providence exacted of the more humbly stationed; but the
+      power which had predestined Mrs. Plinth to keep a footman clearly intended
+      her to maintain an equally specialized staff of responsibilities. It was
+      the more to be regretted that Mrs. Ballinger, whose obligations to society
+      were bounded by the narrow scope of two parlour-maids, should have been so
+      tenacious of the right to entertain Osric Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question of that lady&rsquo;s reception had for a month past profoundly
+      moved the members of the Lunch Club. It was not that they felt themselves
+      unequal to the task, but that their sense of the opportunity plunged them
+      into the agreeable uncertainty of the lady who weighs the alternatives of
+      a well-stocked wardrobe. If such subsidiary members as Mrs. Leveret were
+      fluttered by the thought of exchanging ideas with the author of &ldquo;The Wings
+      of Death,&rdquo; no forebodings disturbed the conscious adequacy of Mrs. Plinth,
+      Mrs. Ballinger and Miss Van Vluyck. &ldquo;The Wings of Death&rdquo; had, in fact, at
+      Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s suggestion, been chosen as the subject of discussion at
+      the last club meeting, and each member had thus been enabled to express
+      her own opinion or to appropriate whatever sounded well in the comments of
+      the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby alone had abstained from profiting by the opportunity; but it
+      was now openly recognised that, as a member of the Lunch Club, Mrs. Roby
+      was a failure. &ldquo;It all comes,&rdquo; as Miss Van Vluyck put it, &ldquo;of accepting a
+      woman on a man&rsquo;s estimation.&rdquo; Mrs. Roby, returning to Hillbridge from a
+      prolonged sojourn in exotic lands&mdash;the other ladies no longer took
+      the trouble to remember where&mdash;had been heralded by the distinguished
+      biologist, Professor Foreland, as the most agreeable woman he had ever
+      met; and the members of the Lunch Club, impressed by an encomium that
+      carried the weight of a diploma, and rashly assuming that the Professor&rsquo;s
+      social sympathies would follow the line of his professional bent, had
+      seized the chance of annexing a biological member. Their disillusionment
+      was complete. At Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s first off-hand mention of the
+      pterodactyl Mrs. Roby had confusedly murmured: &ldquo;I know so little about
+      metres&mdash;&rdquo; and after that painful betrayal of incompetence she had
+      prudently withdrawn from farther participation in the mental gymnastics of
+      the club.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose she flattered him,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck summed up&mdash;&ldquo;or else
+      it&rsquo;s the way she does her hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dimensions of Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s dining-room having restricted the
+      membership of the club to six, the nonconductiveness of one member was a
+      serious obstacle to the exchange of ideas, and some wonder had already
+      been expressed that Mrs. Roby should care to live, as it were, on the
+      intellectual bounty of the others. This feeling was increased by the
+      discovery that she had not yet read &ldquo;The Wings of Death.&rdquo; She owned to
+      having heard the name of Osric Dane; but that&mdash;incredible as it
+      appeared&mdash;was the extent of her acquaintance with the celebrated
+      novelist. The ladies could not conceal their surprise; but Mrs. Ballinger,
+      whose pride in the club made her wish to put even Mrs. Roby in the best
+      possible light, gently insinuated that, though she had not had time to
+      acquaint herself with &ldquo;The Wings of Death,&rdquo; she must at least be familiar
+      with its equally remarkable predecessor, &ldquo;The Supreme Instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby wrinkled her sunny brows in a conscientious effort of memory, as
+      a result of which she recalled that, oh, yes, she <i>had</i> seen the book
+      at her brother&rsquo;s, when she was staying with him in Brazil, and had even
+      carried it off to read one day on a boating party; but they had all got to
+      shying things at each other in the boat, and the book had gone overboard,
+      so she had never had the chance&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The picture evoked by this anecdote did not increase Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s credit
+      with the club, and there was a painful pause, which was broken by Mrs.
+      Plinth&rsquo;s remarking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can understand that, with all your other pursuits, you should not find
+      much time for reading; but I should have thought you might at least have
+      <i>got up</i> &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; before Osric Dane&rsquo;s arrival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby took this rebuke good-humouredly. She had meant, she owned, to
+      glance through the book; but she had been so absorbed in a novel of
+      Trollope&rsquo;s that&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one reads Trollope now,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger interrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby looked pained. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m only just beginning,&rdquo; she confessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And does he interest you?&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He amuses me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amusement,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth, &ldquo;is hardly what I look for in my choice of
+      books.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, certainly, &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; is not amusing,&rdquo; ventured Mrs.
+      Leveret, whose manner of putting forth an opinion was like that of an
+      obliging salesman with a variety of other styles to submit if his first
+      selection does not suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it <i>meant</i> to be?&rdquo; enquired Mrs. Plinth, who was fond of asking
+      questions that she permitted no one but herself to answer. &ldquo;Assuredly
+      not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly not&mdash;that is what I was going to say,&rdquo; assented Mrs.
+      Leveret, hastily rolling up her opinion and reaching for another. &ldquo;It was
+      meant to&mdash;to elevate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck adjusted her spectacles as though they were the black cap
+      of condemnation. &ldquo;I hardly see,&rdquo; she interposed, &ldquo;how a book steeped in
+      the bitterest pessimism can be said to elevate however much it may
+      instruct.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant, of course, to instruct,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leveret, flurried by the
+      unexpected distinction between two terms which she had supposed to be
+      synonymous. Mrs. Leveret&rsquo;s enjoyment of the Lunch Club was frequently
+      marred by such surprises; and not knowing her own value to the other
+      ladies as a mirror for their mental complacency she was sometimes troubled
+      by a doubt of her worthiness to join in their debates. It was only the
+      fact of having a dull sister who thought her clever that saved her, from a
+      sense of hopeless inferiority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they get married in the end?&rdquo; Mrs. Roby interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They&mdash;who?&rdquo; the Lunch Club collectively exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the girl and man. It&rsquo;s a novel, isn&rsquo;t it? I always think that&rsquo;s the
+      one thing that matters. If they&rsquo;re parted it spoils my dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Ballinger exchanged scandalised glances, and the
+      latter said: &ldquo;I should hardly advise you to read &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; in
+      that spirit. For my part, when there are so many books one <i>has</i> to
+      read; I wonder how any one can find time for those that are merely
+      amusing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The beautiful part of it,&rdquo; Laura Glyde murmured, &ldquo;is surely just this&mdash;that
+      no one can tell how &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; ends. Osric Dane, overcome by the
+      awful significance of her own meaning, has mercifully veiled it&mdash;perhaps
+      even from herself&mdash;as Apelles, in representing the sacrifice of
+      Iphigenia, veiled the face of Agamemnon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that? Is it poetry?&rdquo; whispered Mrs. Leveret to Mrs. Plinth, who,
+      disdaining a definite reply, said coldly: &ldquo;You should look it up. I always
+      make it a point to look things up.&rdquo; Her tone added&mdash;&ldquo;though I might
+      easily have it done for me by the footman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was about to say,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck resumed, &ldquo;that it must always be a
+      question whether a book <i>can</i> instruct unless it elevates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&mdash;&rdquo; murmured Mrs. Leveret, now feeling herself hopelessly astray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger, scenting in Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s tone a
+      tendency to depreciate the coveted distinction of entertaining Osric Dane;
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that such a question can seriously be raised as to a book
+      which has attracted more attention among thoughtful people than any novel
+      since &lsquo;Robert Elsmere.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, but don&rsquo;t you see,&rdquo; exclaimed Laura Glyde, &ldquo;that it&rsquo;s just the dark
+      hopelessness of it all&mdash;the wonderful tone-scheme of black on black&mdash;that
+      makes it such an artistic achievement? It reminded me when I read it of
+      Prince Rupert&rsquo;s <i>manière noire</i>...the book is etched, not painted,
+      yet one feels the colour-values so intensely....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is he?&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret whispered to her neighbour. &ldquo;Some one she&rsquo;s met
+      abroad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wonderful part of the book,&rdquo; Mrs. Bellinger conceded, &ldquo;is that it may
+      be looked at from so many points of view. I hear that as a study of
+      determinism Professor Lupton ranks it with &lsquo;The Data of Ethics.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m told that Osric Dane spent ten years in preparatory studies before
+      beginning to write it,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth. &ldquo;She looks up everything&mdash;verifies
+      everything. It has always been my principle, as you know. Nothing would
+      induce me, now, to put aside a book before I&rsquo;d finished it, just because I
+      can buy as many more as I want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do <i>you</i> think of &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo;?&rdquo; Mrs. Roby abruptly
+      asked her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the kind of question that might be termed out of order, and the
+      ladies glanced at each other as though disclaiming any share in such a
+      breach of discipline. They all knew there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so much
+      disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written to read;
+      if one read them what more could be expected? To be questioned in detail
+      regarding the contents of a volume seemed to her as great an outrage as
+      being searched for smuggled laces at the Custom House. The club had always
+      respected this idiosyncrasy of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s. Such opinions as she had
+      were imposing and substantial: her mind, like her house, was furnished
+      with monumental &ldquo;pieces&rdquo; that were not meant to be disarranged; and it was
+      one of the unwritten rules of the Lunch Club that, within her own
+      province, each member&rsquo;s habits of thought should be respected. The meeting
+      therefore closed with an increased sense, on the part of the other ladies,
+      of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s hopeless unfitness to be one of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret, on the eventful day, arrived early at Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s, her
+      volume of Appropriate Allusions in her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It always flustered Mrs. Leveret to be late at the Lunch Club: she liked
+      to collect her thoughts and gather a hint, as the others assembled, of the
+      turn the conversation was likely to take. To-day, however, she felt
+      herself completely at a loss; and even the familiar contact of Appropriate
+      Allusions, which stuck into her as she sat down, failed to give her any
+      reassurance. It was an admirable little volume, compiled to meet all the
+      social emergencies; so that, whether on the occasion of Anniversaries,
+      joyful or melancholy (as the classification ran), of Banquets, social or
+      municipal, or of Baptisms, Church of England or sectarian, its student
+      need never be at a loss for a pertinent reference. Mrs. Leveret, though
+      she had for years devoutly conned its pages, valued it, however, rather
+      for its moral support than for its practical services; for though in the
+      privacy of her own room she commanded an army of quotations, these
+      invariably deserted her at the critical moment, and the only phrase she
+      retained&mdash;<i>Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook</i>?&mdash;was
+      one she had never yet found occasion to apply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-day she felt that even the complete mastery of the volume would hardly
+      have insured her self-possession; for she thought it probable that, even
+      if she <i>did</i>, in some miraculous way, remember an Allusion, it would
+      be only to find that Osric Dane used a different volume (Mrs. Leveret was
+      convinced that literary people always carried them), and would
+      consequently not recognise her quotations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret&rsquo;s sense of being adrift was intensified by the appearance of
+      Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s drawing-room. To a careless eye its aspect was unchanged;
+      but those acquainted with Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s way of arranging her books
+      would instantly have detected the marks of recent perturbation. Mrs.
+      Ballinger&rsquo;s province, as a member of the Lunch Club, was the Book of the
+      Day. On that, whatever it was, from a novel to a treatise on experimental
+      psychology, she was confidently, authoritatively &ldquo;up.&rdquo; What became of last
+      year&rsquo;s books, or last week&rsquo;s even; what she did with the &ldquo;subjects&rdquo; she
+      had previously professed with equal authority; no one had ever yet
+      discovered. &lsquo;Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like
+      transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently
+      without paying for their board. It was Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s boast that she was
+      &ldquo;abreast with the Thought of the Day,&rdquo; and her pride that this advanced
+      position should be expressed by the books on her table. These volumes,
+      frequently renewed, and almost always damp from the press, bore names
+      generally unfamiliar to Mrs. Leveret, and giving her, as she furtively
+      scanned them, a disheartening glimpse of new fields of knowledge to be
+      breathlessly traversed in Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s wake. But to-day a number of
+      maturer-looking volumes were adroitly mingled with the <i>primeurs</i> of
+      the press&mdash;Karl Marx jostled Professor Bergson, and the &ldquo;Confessions
+      of St. Augustine&rdquo; lay beside the last work on &ldquo;Mendelism&rdquo;; so that even to
+      Mrs. Leveret&rsquo;s fluttered perceptions it was clear that Mrs. Ballinger
+      didn&rsquo;t in the least know what Osric Dane was likely to talk about, and had
+      taken measures to be prepared for anything. Mrs. Leveret felt like a
+      passenger on an ocean steamer who is told that there is no immediate
+      danger, but that she had better put on her life-belt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a relief to be roused from these forebodings by Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s
+      arrival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear,&rdquo; the new-comer briskly asked her hostess, &ldquo;what subjects
+      are we to discuss to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger was furtively replacing a volume of Wordsworth by a copy of
+      Verlaine. &ldquo;I hardly know,&rdquo; she said, somewhat nervously. &ldquo;Perhaps we had
+      better leave that to circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Circumstances?&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck drily. &ldquo;That means, I suppose, that
+      Laura Glyde will take the floor as usual, and we shall be deluged with
+      literature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Philanthropy and statistics were Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s province, and she
+      resented any tendency to divert their guest&rsquo;s attention from these topics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth at this moment appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Literature?&rdquo; she protested in a tone of remonstrance. &ldquo;But this is
+      perfectly unexpected. I understood we were to talk of Osric Dane&rsquo;s novel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger winced at the discrimination, but let it pass. &ldquo;We can
+      hardly make that our chief subject&mdash;at least not <i>too</i>
+      intentionally,&rdquo; she suggested. &ldquo;Of course we can let our talk <i>drift</i>
+      in that direction; but we ought to have some other topic as an
+      introduction, and that is what I wanted to consult you about. The fact is,
+      we know so little of Osric Dane&rsquo;s tastes and interests that it is
+      difficult to make any special preparation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be difficult,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth with decision, &ldquo;but it is
+      necessary. I know what that happy-go-lucky principle leads to. As I told
+      one of my nieces the other day, there are certain emergencies for which a
+      lady should always be prepared. It&rsquo;s in shocking taste to wear colours
+      when one pays a visit of condolence, or a last year&rsquo;s dress when there are
+      reports that one&rsquo;s husband is on the wrong side of the market; and so it
+      is with conversation. All I ask is that I should know beforehand what is
+      to be talked about; then I feel sure of being able to say the proper
+      thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite agree with you,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger assented; &ldquo;but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at that instant, heralded by the fluttered parlourmaid, Osric Dane
+      appeared upon the threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret told her sister afterward that she had known at a glance what
+      was coming. She saw that Osric Dane was not going to meet them half way.
+      That distinguished personage had indeed entered with an air of compulsion
+      not calculated to promote the easy exercise of hospitality. She looked as
+      though she were about to be photographed for a new edition of her books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The desire to propitiate a divinity is generally in inverse ratio to its
+      responsiveness, and the sense of discouragement produced by Osric Dane&rsquo;s
+      entrance visibly increased the Lunch Club&rsquo;s eagerness to please her. Any
+      lingering idea that she might consider herself under an obligation to her
+      entertainers was at once dispelled by her manner: as Mrs. Leveret said
+      afterward to her sister, she had a way of looking at you that made you
+      feel as if there was something wrong with your hat. This evidence of
+      greatness produced such an immediate impression on the ladies that a
+      shudder of awe ran through them when Mrs. Roby, as their hostess led the
+      great personage into the dining-room, turned back to whisper to the
+      others: &ldquo;What a brute she is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour about the table did not tend to revise this verdict. It was
+      passed by Osric Dane in the silent deglutition of Mrs. Bollinger&rsquo;s menu,
+      and by the members of the club in the emission of tentative platitudes
+      which their guest seemed to swallow as perfunctorily as the successive
+      courses of the luncheon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s reluctance to fix a topic had thrown the club into a
+      mental disarray which increased with the return to the drawing-room, where
+      the actual business of discussion was to open. Each lady waited for the
+      other to speak; and there was a general shock of disappointment when their
+      hostess opened the conversation by the painfully commonplace enquiry. &ldquo;Is
+      this your first visit to Hillbridge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Mrs. Leveret was conscious that this was a bad beginning; and a vague
+      impulse of deprecation made Miss Glyde interject: &ldquo;It is a very small
+      place indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth bristled. &ldquo;We have a great many representative people,&rdquo; she
+      said, in the tone of one who speaks for her order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane turned to her. &ldquo;What do they represent?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s constitutional dislike to being questioned was intensified
+      by her sense of unpreparedness; and her reproachful glance passed the
+      question on to Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said that lady, glancing in turn at the other members, &ldquo;as a
+      community I hope it is not too much to say that we stand for culture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For art&mdash;&rdquo; Miss Glyde interjected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For art and literature,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger emended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for sociology, I trust,&rdquo; snapped Miss Van Vluyck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a standard,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth, feeling herself suddenly secure on
+      the vast expanse of a generalisation; and Mrs. Leveret, thinking there
+      must be room for more than one on so broad a statement, took courage to
+      murmur: &ldquo;Oh, certainly; we have a standard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The object of our little club,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger continued, &ldquo;is to
+      concentrate the highest tendencies of Hillbridge&mdash;to centralise and
+      focus its intellectual effort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was felt to be so happy that the ladies drew an almost audible breath
+      of relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We aspire,&rdquo; the President went on, &ldquo;to be in touch with whatever is
+      highest in art, literature and ethics.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane again turned to her. &ldquo;What ethics?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A tremor of apprehension encircled the room. None of the ladies required
+      any preparation to pronounce on a question of morals; but when they were
+      called ethics it was different. The club, when fresh from the
+      &ldquo;Encyclopaedia Britannica,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Reader&rsquo;s Handbook&rdquo; or Smith&rsquo;s &ldquo;Classical
+      Dictionary,&rdquo; could deal confidently with any subject; but when taken
+      unawares it had been known to define agnosticism as a heresy of the Early
+      Church and Professor Froude as a distinguished histologist; and such minor
+      members as Mrs. Leveret still secretly regarded ethics as something
+      vaguely pagan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even to Mrs. Ballinger, Osric Dane&rsquo;s question was unsettling, and there
+      was a general sense of gratitude when Laura Glyde leaned forward to say,
+      with her most sympathetic accent: &ldquo;You must excuse us, Mrs. Dane, for not
+      being able, just at present, to talk of anything but &lsquo;The Wings of
+      Death.&rdquo;&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, with a sudden resolve to carry the war into
+      the enemy&rsquo;s camp. &ldquo;We are so anxious to know the exact purpose you had in
+      mind in writing your wonderful book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will find,&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth interposed, &ldquo;that we are not superficial
+      readers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are eager to hear from you,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck continued, &ldquo;if the
+      pessimistic tendency of the book is an expression of your own convictions
+      or&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or merely,&rdquo; Miss Glyde thrust in, &ldquo;a sombre background brushed in to
+      throw your figures into more vivid relief. <i>Are</i> you not primarily
+      plastic?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always maintained,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger interposed, &ldquo;that you represent
+      the purely objective method&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane helped herself critically to coffee. &ldquo;How do you define
+      objective?&rdquo; she then enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a flurried pause before Laura Glyde intensely murmured: &ldquo;In
+      reading <i>you</i> we don&rsquo;t define, we feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Otsric Dane smiled. &ldquo;The cerebellum,&rdquo; she remarked, &ldquo;is not infrequently
+      the seat of the literary emotions.&rdquo; And she took a second lump of sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sting that this remark was vaguely felt to conceal was almost
+      neutralised by the satisfaction of being addressed in such technical
+      language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, the cerebellum,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck complacently. &ldquo;The club took a
+      course in psychology last winter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which psychology?&rdquo; asked Osric Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an agonising pause, during which each member of the club
+      secretly deplored the distressing inefficiency of the others. Only Mrs.
+      Roby went on placidly sipping her chartreuse. At last Mrs. Ballinger said,
+      with an attempt at a high tone: &ldquo;Well, really, you know, it was last year
+      that we took psychology, and this winter we have been so absorbed in&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She broke off, nervously trying to recall some of the club&rsquo;s discussions;
+      but her faculties seemed to be paralysed by the petrifying stare of Osric
+      Dane. What <i>had</i> the club been absorbed in? Mrs. Ballinger, with a
+      vague purpose of gaining time, repeated slowly: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been so intensely
+      absorbed in&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby put down her liqueur glass and drew near the group with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Xingu?&rdquo; she gently prompted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thrill ran through the other members. They exchanged confused glances,
+      and then, with one accord, turned a gaze of mingled relief and
+      interrogation on their rescuer. The expression of each denoted a different
+      phase of the same emotion. Mrs. Plinth was the first to compose her
+      features to an air of reassurance: after a moment&rsquo;s hasty adjustment her
+      look almost implied that it was she who had given the word to Mrs.
+      Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Xingu, of course!&rdquo; exclaimed the latter with her accustomed promptness,
+      while Miss Van Vluyck and Laura Glyde seemed to be plumbing the depths of
+      memory, and Mrs. Leveret, feeling apprehensively for Appropriate
+      Allusions, was somehow reassured by the uncomfortable pressure of its bulk
+      against her person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane&rsquo;s change of countenance was no less striking than that of her
+      entertainers. She too put down her coffee-cup, but with a look of distinct
+      annoyance; she too wore, for a brief moment, what Mrs. Roby afterward
+      described as the look of feeling for something in the back of her head;
+      and before she could dissemble these momentary signs of weakness, Mrs.
+      Roby, turning to her with a deferential smile, had said: &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ve been
+      so hoping that to-day you would tell us just what you think of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane received the homage of the smile as a matter of course; but the
+      accompanying question obviously embarrassed her, and it became clear to
+      her observers that she was not quick at shifting her facial scenery. It
+      was as though her countenance had so long been set in an expression of
+      unchallenged superiority that the muscles had stiffened, and refused to
+      obey her orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Xingu&mdash;&rdquo; she said, as if seeking in her turn to gain time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby continued to press her. &ldquo;Knowing how engrossing the subject is,
+      you will understand how it happens that the club has let everything else
+      go to the wall for the moment. Since we took up Xingu I might almost say&mdash;were
+      it not for your books&mdash;that nothing else seems to us worth
+      remembering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane&rsquo;s stern features were darkened rather than lit up by an uneasy
+      smile. &ldquo;I am glad to hear that you make one exception,&rdquo; she gave out
+      between narrowed lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby said prettily; &ldquo;but as you have shown us that&mdash;so
+      very naturally!&mdash;you don&rsquo;t care to talk of your own things, we really
+      can&rsquo;t let you off from telling us exactly what you think about Xingu;
+      especially,&rdquo; she added, with a still more persuasive smile, &ldquo;as some
+      people say that one of your last books was saturated with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an <i>it</i>, then&mdash;the assurance sped like fire through the
+      parched minds of the other members. In their eagerness to gain the least
+      little clue to Xingu they almost forgot the joy of assisting at the
+      discomfiture of Mrs. Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter reddened nervously under her antagonist&rsquo;s challenge. &ldquo;May I
+      ask,&rdquo; she faltered out, &ldquo;to which of my books you refer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby did not falter. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just what I want you to tell us;
+      because, though I was present, I didn&rsquo;t actually take part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Present at what?&rdquo; Mrs. Dane took her up; and for an instant the trembling
+      members of the Lunch Club thought that the champion Providence had raised
+      up for them had lost a point. But Mrs. Roby explained herself gaily: &ldquo;At
+      the discussion, of course. And so we&rsquo;re dreadfully anxious to know just
+      how it was that you went into the Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a portentous pause, a silence so big with incalculable dangers
+      that the members with one accord checked the words on their lips, like
+      soldiers dropping their arms to watch a single combat between their
+      leaders. Then Mrs. Dane gave expression to their inmost dread by saying
+      sharply: &ldquo;Ah&mdash;you say <i>the</i> Xingu, do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby smiled undauntedly. &ldquo;It is a shade pedantic, isn&rsquo;t it?
+      Personally, I always drop the article; but I don&rsquo;t know how the other
+      members feel about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other members looked as though they would willingly have dispensed
+      with this appeal to their opinion, and Mrs. Roby, after a bright glance
+      about the group, went on: &ldquo;They probably think, as I do, that nothing
+      really matters except the thing itself&mdash;except Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No immediate reply seemed to occur to Mrs. Dane, and Mrs. Ballinger
+      gathered courage to say: &ldquo;Surely every one must feel that about Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth came to her support with a heavy murmur of assent, and Laura
+      Glyde sighed out emotionally: &ldquo;I have known cases where it has changed a
+      whole life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has done me worlds of good,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret interjected, seeming to
+      herself to remember that she had either taken it or read it the winter
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby admitted, &ldquo;the difficulty is that one must give up
+      so much time to it. It&rsquo;s very long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t imagine,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, &ldquo;grudging the time given to such
+      a subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And deep in places,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby pursued; (so then it was a book!) &ldquo;And it
+      isn&rsquo;t easy to skip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never skip,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth dogmatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, it&rsquo;s dangerous to, in Xingu. Even at the start there are places where
+      one can&rsquo;t. One must just wade through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should hardly call it <i>wading</i>,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger
+      sarcastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby sent her a look of interest. &ldquo;Ah&mdash;you always found it went
+      swimmingly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger hesitated. &ldquo;Of course there are difficult passages,&rdquo; she
+      conceded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; some are not at all clear&mdash;even,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby added, &ldquo;if one is
+      familiar with the original.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I suppose you are?&rdquo; Osric Dane interposed, suddenly fixing her with a
+      look of challenge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby met it by a deprecating gesture. &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s really not difficult
+      up to a certain point; though some of the branches are very little known,
+      and it&rsquo;s almost impossible to get at the source.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you ever tried?&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth enquired, still distrustful of Mrs.
+      Roby&rsquo;s thoroughness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby was silent for a moment; then she replied with lowered lids: &ldquo;No&mdash;but
+      a friend of mine did; a very brilliant man; and he told me it was best for
+      women&mdash;not to....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A shudder ran around the room. Mrs. Leveret coughed so that the
+      parlour-maid, who was handing the cigarettes, should not hear; Miss Van
+      Vluyck&rsquo;s face took on a nauseated expression, and Mrs. Plinth looked as if
+      she were passing some one she did not care to bow to. But the most
+      remarkable result of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s words was the effect they produced on the
+      Lunch Club&rsquo;s distinguished guest. Osric Dane&rsquo;s impassive features suddenly
+      softened to an expression of the warmest human sympathy, and edging her
+      chair toward Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s she asked: &ldquo;Did he really? And&mdash;did you find
+      he was right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger, in whom annoyance at Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s unwonted assumption of
+      prominence was beginning to displace gratitude for the aid she had
+      rendered, could not consent to her being allowed, by such dubious means,
+      to monopolise the attention of their guest. If Osric Dane had not enough
+      self-respect to resent Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s flippancy, at least the Lunch Club
+      would do so in the person of its President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger laid her hand on Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;We must not forget,&rdquo; she
+      said with a frigid amiability, &ldquo;that absorbing as Xingu is to <i>us</i>,
+      it may be less interesting to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, on the contrary, I assure you,&rdquo; Osric Dane intervened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;to others,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger finished firmly; &ldquo;and we must not allow
+      our little meeting to end without persuading Mrs. Dane to say a few words
+      to us on a subject which, to-day, is much more present in all our
+      thoughts. I refer, of course, to &lsquo;The Wings of Death.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other members, animated by various degrees of the same sentiment, and
+      encouraged by the humanised mien of their redoubtable guest, repeated
+      after Mrs. Ballinger: &ldquo;Oh, yes, you really <i>must</i> talk to us a little
+      about your book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane&rsquo;s expression became as bored, though not as haughty, as when
+      her work had been previously mentioned. But before she could respond to
+      Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s request, Mrs. Roby had risen from her seat, and was
+      pulling down her veil over her frivolous nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so sorry,&rdquo; she said, advancing toward her hostess with outstretched
+      hand, &ldquo;but before Mrs. Dane begins I think I&rsquo;d better run away. Unluckily,
+      as you know, I haven&rsquo;t read her books, so I should be at a terrible
+      disadvantage among you all, and besides, I&rsquo;ve an engagement to play
+      bridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If Mrs. Roby had simply pleaded her ignorance of Osric Dane&rsquo;s works as a
+      reason for withdrawing, the Lunch Club, in view of her recent prowess,
+      might have approved such evidence of discretion; but to couple this excuse
+      with the brazen announcement that she was foregoing the privilege for the
+      purpose of joining a bridge-party was only one more instance of her
+      deplorable lack of discrimination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies were disposed, however, to feel that her departure&mdash;now
+      that she had performed the sole service she was ever likely to render them&mdash;would
+      probably make for greater order and dignity in the impending discussion,
+      besides relieving them of the sense of self-distrust which her presence
+      always mysteriously produced. Mrs. Ballinger therefore restricted herself
+      to a formal murmur of regret, and the other members were just grouping
+      themselves comfortably about Osric Dane when the latter, to their dismay,
+      started up from the sofa on which she had been seated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh wait&mdash;do wait, and I&rsquo;ll go with you!&rdquo; she called out to Mrs.
+      Roby; and, seizing the hands of the disconcerted members, she administered
+      a series of farewell pressures with the mechanical haste of a
+      railway-conductor punching tickets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so sorry&mdash;I&rsquo;d quite forgotten&mdash;&rdquo; she flung back at them
+      from the threshold; and as she joined Mrs. Roby, who had turned in
+      surprise at her appeal, the other ladies had the mortification of hearing
+      her say, in a voice which she did not take the pains to lower: &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ll
+      let me walk a little way with you, I should so like to ask you a few more
+      questions about Xingu....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The incident had been so rapid that the door closed on the departing pair
+      before the other members had time to understand what was happening. Then a
+      sense of the indignity put upon them by Osric Dane&rsquo;s unceremonious
+      desertion began to contend with the confused feeling that they had been
+      cheated out of their due without exactly knowing how or why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence, during which Mrs. Ballinger, with a perfunctory hand,
+      rearranged the skilfully grouped literature at which her distinguished
+      guest had not so much as glanced; then Miss Van Vluyck tartly pronounced:
+      &ldquo;Well, I can&rsquo;t say that I consider Osric Dane&rsquo;s departure a great loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This confession crystallised the resentment of the other members, and Mrs.
+      Leveret exclaimed: &ldquo;I do believe she came on purpose to be nasty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s private opinion that Osric Dane&rsquo;s attitude toward the
+      Lunch Club might have been very different had it welcomed her in the
+      majestic setting of the Plinth drawing-rooms; but not liking to reflect on
+      the inadequacy of Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s establishment she sought a roundabout
+      satisfaction in depreciating her lack of foresight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said from the first that we ought to have had a subject ready. It&rsquo;s
+      what always happens when you&rsquo;re unprepared. Now if we&rsquo;d only got up Xingu&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slowness of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s mental processes was always allowed for by
+      the club; but this instance of it was too much for Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s
+      equanimity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Xingu!&rdquo; she scoffed. &ldquo;Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more
+      about it than she did&mdash;unprepared though we were&mdash;that made
+      Osric Dane so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to
+      everybody!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This retort impressed even Mrs. Plinth, and Laura Glyde, moved by an
+      impulse of generosity, said: &ldquo;Yes, we really ought to be grateful to Mrs.
+      Roby for introducing the topic. It may have made Osric Dane furious, but
+      at least it made her civil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad we were able to show her,&rdquo; added Miss Van Vluyck, &ldquo;that a broad
+      and up-to-date culture is not confined to the great intellectual centres.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This increased the satisfaction of the other members, and they began to
+      forget their wrath against Osric Dane in the pleasure of having
+      contributed to her discomfiture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck thoughtfully rubbed her spectacles. &ldquo;What surprised me
+      most,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;was that Fanny Roby should be so up on Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark threw a slight chill on the company, but Mrs. Ballinger said
+      with an air of indulgent irony: &ldquo;Mrs. Roby always has the knack of making
+      a little go a long way; still, we certainly owe her a debt for happening
+      to remember that she&rsquo;d heard of Xingu.&rdquo; And this was felt by the other
+      members to be a graceful way of cancelling once for all the club&rsquo;s
+      obligation to Mrs. Roby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Mrs. Leveret took courage to speed a timid shaft of irony. &ldquo;I fancy
+      Osric Dane hardly expected to take a lesson in Xingu at Hillbridge!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger smiled. &ldquo;When she asked me what we represented&mdash;do you
+      remember?&mdash;I wish I&rsquo;d simply said we represented Xingu!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the ladies laughed appreciatively at this sally, except Mrs. Plinth,
+      who said, after a moment&rsquo;s deliberation: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure it would have been
+      wise to do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger, who was already beginning to feel as if she had launched
+      at Osric Dane the retort which had just occurred to her, turned ironically
+      on Mrs. Plinth. &ldquo;May I ask why?&rdquo; she enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth looked grave. &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I understood from Mrs. Roby
+      herself that the subject was one it was as well not to go into too
+      deeply?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck rejoined with precision: &ldquo;I think that applied only to an
+      investigation of the origin of the&mdash;of the&mdash;&ldquo;; and suddenly she
+      found that her usually accurate memory had failed her. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a part of the
+      subject I never studied myself/,&rdquo; she concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laura Glyde bent toward them with widened eyes. &ldquo;And yet it seems&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t
+      it?&mdash;the part that is fullest of an esoteric fascination?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know on what you base that,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck
+      argumentatively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, didn&rsquo;t you notice how intensely interested Osric Dane became as
+      soon as she heard what the brilliant foreigner&mdash;he <i>was</i> a
+      foreigner, wasn&rsquo;t he?&mdash;had told Mrs. Roby about the origin&mdash;the
+      origin of the rite&mdash;or whatever you call it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth looked disapproving, and Mrs. Ballinger visibly wavered. Then
+      she said: &ldquo;It may not be desirable to touch on the&mdash;on that part of
+      the subject in general conversation; but, from the importance it evidently
+      has to a woman of Osric Dane&rsquo;s distinction, I feel as if we ought not to
+      be afraid to discuss it among ourselves&mdash;without gloves&mdash;though
+      with closed doors, if necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite of your opinion,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck came briskly to her support;
+      &ldquo;on condition, that is, that all grossness of language is avoided.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;m sure we shall understand without that,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret tittered;
+      and Laura Glyde added significantly: &ldquo;I fancy we can read between the
+      lines,&rdquo; while Mrs. Ballinger rose to assure herself that the doors were
+      really closed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth had not yet given her adhesion. &ldquo;I hardly see,&rdquo; she began,
+      &ldquo;what benefit is to be derived from investigating such peculiar customs&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s patience had reached the extreme limit of tension.
+      &ldquo;This at least,&rdquo; she returned; &ldquo;that we shall not be placed again in the
+      humiliating position of finding ourselves less up on our own subjects than
+      Fanny Roby!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even to Mrs. Plinth this argument was conclusive. She peered furtively
+      about the room and lowered her commanding tones to ask: &ldquo;Have you got a
+      copy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A&mdash;a copy?&rdquo; stammered Mrs. Ballinger. She was aware that the other
+      members were looking at her expectantly, and that this answer was
+      inadequate, so she supported it by asking another question. &ldquo;A copy of
+      what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her companions bent their expectant gaze on Mrs. Plinth, who, in turn,
+      appeared less sure of herself than usual. &ldquo;Why, of&mdash;of&mdash;the
+      book,&rdquo; she explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What book?&rdquo; snapped Miss Van Vluyck, almost as sharply as Osric Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger looked at Laura Glyde, whose eyes were interrogatively
+      fixed on Mrs. Leveret. The fact of being deferred to was so new to the
+      latter that it filled her with an insane temerity. &ldquo;Why, Xingu, of
+      course!&rdquo; she exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A profound silence followed this challenge to the resources of Mrs.
+      Ballinger&rsquo;s library, and the latter, after glancing nervously toward the
+      Books of the Day, returned with dignity: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a thing one cares to
+      leave about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think not!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Plinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It <i>is</i> a book, then?&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This again threw the company into disarray, and Mrs. Ballinger, with an
+      impatient sigh, rejoined: &ldquo;Why&mdash;there <i>is</i> a book&mdash;naturally....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why did Miss Glyde call it a religion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Laura Glyde started up. &ldquo;A religion? I never&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you did,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck insisted; &ldquo;you spoke of rites; and Mrs.
+      Plinth said it was a custom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Glyde was evidently making a desperate effort to recall her
+      statement; but accuracy of detail was not her strongest point. At length
+      she began in a deep murmur: &ldquo;Surely they used to do something of the kind
+      at the Eleusinian mysteries&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&mdash;&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, on the verge of disapproval; and Mrs.
+      Plinth protested: &ldquo;I understood there was to be no indelicacy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger could not control her irritation. &ldquo;Really, it is too bad
+      that we should not be able to talk the matter over quietly among
+      ourselves. Personally, I think that if one goes into Xingu at all&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, so do I!&rdquo; cried Miss Glyde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I don&rsquo;t see how one can avoid doing so, if one wishes to keep up with
+      the Thought of the Day&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret uttered an exclamation of relief. &ldquo;There&mdash;that&rsquo;s it!&rdquo;
+       she interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s it?&rdquo; the President took her up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why&mdash;it&rsquo;s a&mdash;a Thought: I mean a philosophy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This seemed to bring a certain relief to Mrs. Ballinger and Laura Glyde,
+      but Miss Van Vluyck said: &ldquo;Excuse me if I tell you that you&rsquo;re all
+      mistaken. Xingu happens to be a language.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A language!&rdquo; the Lunch Club cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly. Don&rsquo;t you remember Fanny Roby&rsquo;s saying that there were several
+      branches, and that some were hard to trace? What could that apply to but
+      dialects?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger could no longer restrain a contemptuous laugh. &ldquo;Really, if
+      the Lunch Club has reached such a pass that it has to go to Fanny Roby for
+      instruction on a subject like Xingu, it had almost better cease to exist!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really her fault for not being clearer,&rdquo; Laura Glyde put in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, clearness and Fanny Roby!&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger shrugged. &ldquo;I daresay we
+      shall find she was mistaken on almost every point.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not look it up?&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a rule this recurrent suggestion of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s was ignored in the
+      heat of discussion, and only resorted to afterward in the privacy of each
+      member&rsquo;s home. But on the present occasion the desire to ascribe their own
+      confusion of thought to the vague and contradictory nature of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s
+      statements caused the members of the Lunch Club to utter a collective
+      demand for a book of reference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point the production of her treasured volume gave Mrs. Leveret,
+      for a moment, the unusual experience of occupying the centre front; but
+      she was not able to hold it long, for Appropriate Allusions contained no
+      mention of Xingu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s not the kind of thing we want!&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Van Vluyck. She
+      cast a disparaging glance over Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s assortment of literature,
+      and added impatiently: &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you any useful books?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I have,&rdquo; replied Mrs. Ballinger indignantly; &ldquo;I keep them in my
+      husband&rsquo;s dressing-room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From this region, after some difficulty and delay, the parlour-maid
+      produced the W-Z volume of an Encyclopaedia and, in deference to the fact
+      that the demand for it had come from Miss Van Vluyck, laid the ponderous
+      tome before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment of painful suspense while Miss Van Vluyck rubbed her
+      spectacles, adjusted them, and turned to Z; and a murmur of surprise when
+      she said: &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not fit to be put in a book of
+      reference.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, nonsense!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Ballinger. &ldquo;Try X.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck turned back through the volume, peering short-sightedly up
+      and down the pages, till she came to a stop and remained motionless, like
+      a dog on a point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, have you found it?&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger enquired after a considerable
+      delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I&rsquo;ve found it,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck in a queer voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth hastily interposed: &ldquo;I beg you won&rsquo;t read it aloud if there&rsquo;s
+      anything offensive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck, without answering, continued her silent scrutiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what <i>is</i> it?&rdquo; exclaimed Laura Glyde excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Do</i> tell us!&rdquo; urged Mrs. Leveret, feeling that she would have
+      something awful to tell her sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck pushed the volume aside and turned slowly toward the
+      expectant group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a river.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A <i>river?</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes: in Brazil. Isn&rsquo;t that where she&rsquo;s been living?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? Fanny Roby? Oh, but you must be mistaken. You&rsquo;ve been reading the
+      wrong thing,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger exclaimed, leaning over her to seize the
+      volume.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only Xingu in the Encyclopaedia; and she <i>has</i> been living
+      in Brazil,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck persisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes: her brother has a consulship there,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s too ridiculous! I&mdash;we&mdash;why we <i>all</i> remember
+      studying Xingu last year&mdash;or the year before last,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger
+      stammered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought I did when <i>you</i> said so,&rdquo; Laura Glyde avowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said so?&rdquo; cried Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. You said it had crowded everything else out of your mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well <i>you</i> said it had changed your whole life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For that matter. Miss Van Vluyck said she had never grudged the time
+      she&rsquo;d given it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth interposed: &ldquo;I made it clear that I knew nothing whatever of
+      the original.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger broke off the dispute with a groan. &ldquo;Oh, what does it all
+      matter if she&rsquo;s been making fools of us? I believe Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s right&mdash;she
+      was talking of the river all the while!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could she? It&rsquo;s too preposterous,&rdquo; Miss Glyde exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen.&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck had repossessed herself of the Encyclopaedia,
+      and restored her spectacles to a nose reddened by excitement. &ldquo;&lsquo;The Xingu,
+      one of the principal rivers of Brazil, rises on the plateau of Mato
+      Grosso, and flows in a northerly direction for a length of no less than
+      one thousand one hundred and eighteen miles, entering the Amazon near the
+      mouth of the latter river. The upper course of the Xingu is auriferous and
+      fed by numerous branches. Its source was first discovered in 1884 by the
+      German explorer von den Steinen, after a difficult and dangerous
+      expedition through a region inhabited by tribes still in the Stone Age of
+      culture.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies received this communication in a state of stupefied silence
+      from which Mrs. Leveret was the first to rally. &ldquo;She certainly <i>did</i>
+      speak of its having branches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The word seemed to snap the last thread of their incredulity. &ldquo;And of its
+      great length,&rdquo; gasped Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She said it was awfully deep, and you couldn&rsquo;t skip&mdash;you just had to
+      wade through,&rdquo; Miss Glyde added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea worked its way more slowly through Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s compact
+      resistances. &ldquo;How could there be anything improper about a river?&rdquo; she
+      enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Improper?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what she said about the source&mdash;that it was corrupt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not corrupt, but hard to get at,&rdquo; Laura Glyde corrected. &ldquo;Some one who&rsquo;d
+      been there had told her so. I daresay it was the explorer himself&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t
+      it say the expedition was dangerous?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Difficult and dangerous,&rsquo;&rdquo; read Miss Van Vluyck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      nothing she said that wouldn&rsquo;t apply to a river&mdash;to this river!&rdquo; She
+      swung about excitedly to the other members. &ldquo;Why, do you remember her
+      telling us that she hadn&rsquo;t read &lsquo;The Supreme Instant&rsquo; because she&rsquo;d taken
+      it on a boating party while she was staying with her brother, and some one
+      had &lsquo;shied&rsquo; it overboard&mdash;&lsquo;shied&rsquo; of course was her own expression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies breathlessly signified that the expression had not escaped
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;and then didn&rsquo;t she tell Osric Dane that one of her books was
+      simply saturated with Xingu? Of course it was, if one of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s rowdy
+      friends had thrown it into the river!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This surprising reconstruction of the scene in which they had just
+      participated left the members of the Lunch Club inarticulate. At length,
+      Mrs. Plinth, after visibly labouring with the problem, said in a heavy
+      tone: &ldquo;Osric Dane was taken in too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret took courage at this. &ldquo;Perhaps that&rsquo;s what Mrs. Roby did it
+      for. She said Osric Dane was a brute, and she may have wanted to give her
+      a lesson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck frowned. &ldquo;It was hardly worth while to do it at our
+      expense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least,&rdquo; said Miss Glyde with a touch of bitterness, &ldquo;she succeeded in
+      interesting her, which was more than we did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What chance had we?&rdquo; rejoined Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Roby monopolised her from the first. And <i>that</i>, I&rsquo;ve no doubt,
+      was her purpose&mdash;to give Osric Dane a false impression of her own
+      standing in the club. She would hesitate at nothing to attract attention:
+      we all know how she took in poor Professor Foreland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She actually makes him give bridge-teas every Thursday,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret
+      piped up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laura Glyde struck her hands together. &ldquo;Why, this is Thursday, and it&rsquo;s <i>there</i>
+      she&rsquo;s gone, of course; and taken Osric with her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they&rsquo;re shrieking over us at this moment,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger
+      between her teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This possibility seemed too preposterous to be admitted. &ldquo;She would hardly
+      dare,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, &ldquo;confess the imposture to Osric Dane.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not so sure: I thought I saw her make a sign as she left. If she
+      hadn&rsquo;t made a sign, why should Osric Dane have rushed out after her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you know, we&rsquo;d all been telling her how wonderful Xingu was, and
+      she said she wanted to find out more about it,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret said, with a
+      tardy impulse of justice to the absent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reminder, far from mitigating the wrath of the other members, gave it
+      a stronger impetus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;and that&rsquo;s exactly what they&rsquo;re both laughing over now,&rdquo; said
+      Laura Glyde ironically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth stood up and gathered her expensive furs about her monumental
+      form. &ldquo;I have no wish to criticise,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but unless the Lunch Club
+      can protect its members against the recurrence of such&mdash;such
+      unbecoming scenes, I for one&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, so do I!&rdquo; agreed Miss Glyde, rising also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck closed the Encyclopaedia and proceeded to button herself
+      into her jacket &ldquo;My time is really too valuable&mdash;&rdquo; she began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy we are all of one mind,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger, looking searchingly
+      at Mrs. Leveret, who looked at the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always deprecate anything like a scandal&mdash;&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has been the cause of one to-day!&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Glyde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret moaned: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see how she <i>could!</i>&rdquo; and Miss Van
+      Vluyck said, picking up her note-book: &ldquo;Some women stop at nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;but if,&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth took up her argument impressively, &ldquo;anything
+      of the kind had happened in <i>my</i> house&rdquo; (it never would have, her
+      tone implied), &ldquo;I should have felt that I owed it to myself either to ask
+      for Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s resignation&mdash;or to offer mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mrs. Plinth&mdash;&rdquo; gasped the Lunch Club.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fortunately for me,&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth continued with an awful magnanimity,
+      &ldquo;the matter was taken out of my hands by our President&rsquo;s decision that the
+      right to entertain distinguished guests was a privilege vested in her
+      office; and I think the other members will agree that, as she was alone in
+      this opinion, she ought to be alone in deciding on the best way of
+      effacing its&mdash;its really deplorable consequences.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A deep silence followed this outbreak of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s long-stored
+      resentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see why I should be expected to ask her to resign&mdash;&rdquo; Mrs.
+      Ballinger at length began; but Laura Glyde turned back to remind her: &ldquo;You
+      know she made you say that you&rsquo;d got on swimmingly in Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An ill-timed giggle escaped from Mrs. Leveret, and Mrs. Ballinger
+      energetically continued &ldquo;&mdash;but you needn&rsquo;t think for a moment that
+      I&rsquo;m afraid to!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door of the drawing-room closed on the retreating backs of the Lunch
+      Club, and the President of that distinguished association, seating herself
+      at her writing-table, and pushing away a copy of &ldquo;The Wings of Death&rdquo; to
+      make room for her elbow, drew forth a sheet of the club&rsquo;s note-paper, on
+      which she began to write: &ldquo;My dear Mrs. Roby&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
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+</html>
diff --git a/24131.txt b/24131.txt
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+++ b/24131.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1519 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Xingu
+       1916
+
+Author: Edith Wharton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24131]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+XINGU
+
+By Edith Wharton
+
+Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as
+though it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded
+the Lunch Club, an association composed of herself and several other
+indomitable huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four
+winters of lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that
+the entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted
+functions; in recognition of which it duly extended to the celebrated
+"Osric Dane," on the day of her arrival in Hillbridge, an invitation to
+be present at the next meeting.
+
+The club was to meet at Mrs. Bellinger's. The other members, behind
+her back, were of one voice in deploring her unwillingness to cede
+her rights in favor of Mrs. Plinth, whose house made a more impressive
+setting for the entertainment of celebrities; while, as Mrs. Leveret
+observed, there was always the picture-gallery to fall back on.
+
+Mrs. Plinth made no secret of sharing this view. She had always regarded
+it as one of her obligations to entertain the Lunch Club's distinguished
+guests. Mrs. Plinth was almost as proud of her obligations as she was
+of her picture-gallery; she was in fact fond of implying that the one
+possession implied the other, and that only a woman of her wealth
+could afford to live up to a standard as high as that which she had set
+herself. An all-round sense of duty, roughly adaptable to various ends,
+was, in her opinion, all that Providence exacted of the more humbly
+stationed; but the power which had predestined Mrs. Plinth to keep a
+footman clearly intended her to maintain an equally specialized staff of
+responsibilities. It was the more to be regretted that Mrs. Ballinger,
+whose obligations to society were bounded by the narrow scope of two
+parlour-maids, should have been so tenacious of the right to entertain
+Osric Dane.
+
+The question of that lady's reception had for a month past profoundly
+moved the members of the Lunch Club. It was not that they felt
+themselves unequal to the task, but that their sense of the opportunity
+plunged them into the agreeable uncertainty of the lady who weighs the
+alternatives of a well-stocked wardrobe. If such subsidiary members as
+Mrs. Leveret were fluttered by the thought of exchanging ideas with the
+author of "The Wings of Death," no forebodings disturbed the conscious
+adequacy of Mrs. Plinth, Mrs. Ballinger and Miss Van Vluyck. "The Wings
+of Death" had, in fact, at Miss Van Vluyck's suggestion, been chosen as
+the subject of discussion at the last club meeting, and each member had
+thus been enabled to express her own opinion or to appropriate whatever
+sounded well in the comments of the others.
+
+Mrs. Roby alone had abstained from profiting by the opportunity; but it
+was now openly recognised that, as a member of the Lunch Club, Mrs. Roby
+was a failure. "It all comes," as Miss Van Vluyck put it, "of accepting
+a woman on a man's estimation." Mrs. Roby, returning to Hillbridge from
+a prolonged sojourn in exotic lands--the other ladies no longer took
+the trouble to remember where--had been heralded by the distinguished
+biologist, Professor Foreland, as the most agreeable woman he had ever
+met; and the members of the Lunch Club, impressed by an encomium
+that carried the weight of a diploma, and rashly assuming that the
+Professor's social sympathies would follow the line of his professional
+bent, had seized the chance of annexing a biological member. Their
+disillusionment was complete. At Miss Van Vluyck's first off-hand
+mention of the pterodactyl Mrs. Roby had confusedly murmured: "I know so
+little about metres--" and after that painful betrayal of incompetence
+she had prudently withdrawn from farther participation in the mental
+gymnastics of the club.
+
+"I suppose she flattered him," Miss Van Vluyck summed up--"or else it's
+the way she does her hair."
+
+The dimensions of Miss Van Vluyck's dining-room having restricted the
+membership of the club to six, the nonconductiveness of one member was
+a serious obstacle to the exchange of ideas, and some wonder had already
+been expressed that Mrs. Roby should care to live, as it were, on the
+intellectual bounty of the others. This feeling was increased by the
+discovery that she had not yet read "The Wings of Death." She owned
+to having heard the name of Osric Dane; but that--incredible as it
+appeared--was the extent of her acquaintance with the celebrated
+novelist. The ladies could not conceal their surprise; but Mrs.
+Ballinger, whose pride in the club made her wish to put even Mrs. Roby
+in the best possible light, gently insinuated that, though she had not
+had time to acquaint herself with "The Wings of Death," she must at
+least be familiar with its equally remarkable predecessor, "The Supreme
+Instant."
+
+Mrs. Roby wrinkled her sunny brows in a conscientious effort of memory,
+as a result of which she recalled that, oh, yes, she _had_ seen the book
+at her brother's, when she was staying with him in Brazil, and had even
+carried it off to read one day on a boating party; but they had all
+got to shying things at each other in the boat, and the book had gone
+overboard, so she had never had the chance--
+
+The picture evoked by this anecdote did not increase Mrs. Roby's credit
+with the club, and there was a painful pause, which was broken by Mrs.
+Plinth's remarking:
+
+"I can understand that, with all your other pursuits, you should not
+find much time for reading; but I should have thought you might at least
+have _got up_ 'The Wings of Death' before Osric Dane's arrival."
+
+Mrs. Roby took this rebuke good-humouredly. She had meant, she owned,
+to glance through the book; but she had been so absorbed in a novel of
+Trollope's that--
+
+"No one reads Trollope now," Mrs. Ballinger interrupted.
+
+Mrs. Roby looked pained. "I'm only just beginning," she confessed.
+
+"And does he interest you?" Mrs. Plinth enquired.
+
+"He amuses me."
+
+"Amusement," said Mrs. Plinth, "is hardly what I look for in my choice
+of books."
+
+"Oh, certainly, 'The Wings of Death' is not amusing," ventured Mrs.
+Leveret, whose manner of putting forth an opinion was like that of an
+obliging salesman with a variety of other styles to submit if his first
+selection does not suit.
+
+"Was it _meant_ to be?" enquired Mrs. Plinth, who was fond of asking
+questions that she permitted no one but herself to answer. "Assuredly
+not."
+
+"Assuredly not--that is what I was going to say," assented Mrs. Leveret,
+hastily rolling up her opinion and reaching for another. "It was meant
+to--to elevate."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck adjusted her spectacles as though they were the black
+cap of condemnation. "I hardly see," she interposed, "how a book steeped
+in the bitterest pessimism can be said to elevate however much it may
+instruct."
+
+"I meant, of course, to instruct," said Mrs. Leveret, flurried by the
+unexpected distinction between two terms which she had supposed to be
+synonymous. Mrs. Leveret's enjoyment of the Lunch Club was frequently
+marred by such surprises; and not knowing her own value to the other
+ladies as a mirror for their mental complacency she was sometimes
+troubled by a doubt of her worthiness to join in their debates. It was
+only the fact of having a dull sister who thought her clever that saved
+her, from a sense of hopeless inferiority.
+
+"Do they get married in the end?" Mrs. Roby interposed.
+
+"They--who?" the Lunch Club collectively exclaimed.
+
+"Why, the girl and man. It's a novel, isn't it? I always think that's
+the one thing that matters. If they're parted it spoils my dinner."
+
+Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Ballinger exchanged scandalised glances, and the
+latter said: "I should hardly advise you to read 'The Wings of Death'
+in that spirit. For my part, when there are so many books one _has_
+to read; I wonder how any one can find time for those that are merely
+amusing."
+
+"The beautiful part of it," Laura Glyde murmured, "is surely just
+this--that no one can tell how 'The Wings of Death' ends. Osric Dane,
+overcome by the awful significance of her own meaning, has mercifully
+veiled it--perhaps even from herself--as Apelles, in representing the
+sacrifice of Iphigenia, veiled the face of Agamemnon."
+
+"What's that? Is it poetry?" whispered Mrs. Leveret to Mrs. Plinth,
+who, disdaining a definite reply, said coldly: "You should look it up.
+I always make it a point to look things up." Her tone added--"though I
+might easily have it done for me by the footman."
+
+"I was about to say," Miss Van Vluyck resumed, "that it must always be a
+question whether a book _can_ instruct unless it elevates."
+
+"Oh--" murmured Mrs. Leveret, now feeling herself hopelessly astray.
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Ballinger, scenting in Miss Van Vluyck's tone
+a tendency to depreciate the coveted distinction of entertaining Osric
+Dane; "I don't know that such a question can seriously be raised as to a
+book which has attracted more attention among thoughtful people than any
+novel since 'Robert Elsmere.'"
+
+"Oh, but don't you see," exclaimed Laura Glyde, "that it's just the
+dark hopelessness of it all--the wonderful tone-scheme of black on
+black--that makes it such an artistic achievement? It reminded me when
+I read it of Prince Rupert's _maniere noire_...the book is etched, not
+painted, yet one feels the colour-values so intensely...."
+
+"Who is he?" Mrs. Leveret whispered to her neighbour. "Some one she's
+met abroad?"
+
+"The wonderful part of the book," Mrs. Bellinger conceded, "is that it
+may be looked at from so many points of view. I hear that as a study of
+determinism Professor Lupton ranks it with 'The Data of Ethics.'"
+
+"I'm told that Osric Dane spent ten years in preparatory studies
+before beginning to write it," said Mrs. Plinth. "She looks up
+everything--verifies everything. It has always been my principle, as
+you know. Nothing would induce me, now, to put aside a book before I'd
+finished it, just because I can buy as many more as I want."
+
+"And what do _you_ think of 'The Wings of Death'?" Mrs. Roby abruptly
+asked her.
+
+It was the kind of question that might be termed out of order, and the
+ladies glanced at each other as though disclaiming any share in such
+a breach of discipline. They all knew there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so
+much disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written
+to read; if one read them what more could be expected? To be questioned
+in detail regarding the contents of a volume seemed to her as great an
+outrage as being searched for smuggled laces at the Custom House. The
+club had always respected this idiosyncrasy of Mrs. Plinth's. Such
+opinions as she had were imposing and substantial: her mind, like her
+house, was furnished with monumental "pieces" that were not meant to
+be disarranged; and it was one of the unwritten rules of the Lunch Club
+that, within her own province, each member's habits of thought should be
+respected. The meeting therefore closed with an increased sense, on the
+part of the other ladies, of Mrs. Roby's hopeless unfitness to be one of
+them.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Mrs. Leveret, on the eventful day, arrived early at Mrs. Ballinger's,
+her volume of Appropriate Allusions in her pocket.
+
+It always flustered Mrs. Leveret to be late at the Lunch Club: she liked
+to collect her thoughts and gather a hint, as the others assembled, of
+the turn the conversation was likely to take. To-day, however, she
+felt herself completely at a loss; and even the familiar contact of
+Appropriate Allusions, which stuck into her as she sat down, failed to
+give her any reassurance. It was an admirable little volume, compiled
+to meet all the social emergencies; so that, whether on the occasion
+of Anniversaries, joyful or melancholy (as the classification ran),
+of Banquets, social or municipal, or of Baptisms, Church of England
+or sectarian, its student need never be at a loss for a pertinent
+reference. Mrs. Leveret, though she had for years devoutly conned its
+pages, valued it, however, rather for its moral support than for its
+practical services; for though in the privacy of her own room she
+commanded an army of quotations, these invariably deserted her at the
+critical moment, and the only phrase she retained--_Canst thou draw out
+leviathan with a hook_?--was one she had never yet found occasion to
+apply.
+
+To-day she felt that even the complete mastery of the volume would
+hardly have insured her self-possession; for she thought it probable
+that, even if she _did_, in some miraculous way, remember an Allusion,
+it would be only to find that Osric Dane used a different volume (Mrs.
+Leveret was convinced that literary people always carried them), and
+would consequently not recognise her quotations.
+
+Mrs. Leveret's sense of being adrift was intensified by the appearance
+of Mrs. Ballinger's drawing-room. To a careless eye its aspect was
+unchanged; but those acquainted with Mrs. Ballinger's way of
+arranging her books would instantly have detected the marks of recent
+perturbation. Mrs. Ballinger's province, as a member of the Lunch Club,
+was the Book of the Day. On that, whatever it was, from a novel to
+a treatise on experimental psychology, she was confidently,
+authoritatively "up." What became of last year's books, or last week's
+even; what she did with the "subjects" she had previously professed with
+equal authority; no one had ever yet discovered. 'Her mind was an hotel
+where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their
+address behind, and frequently without paying for their board. It was
+Mrs. Ballinger's boast that she was "abreast with the Thought of the
+Day," and her pride that this advanced position should be expressed by
+the books on her table. These volumes, frequently renewed, and almost
+always damp from the press, bore names generally unfamiliar to Mrs.
+Leveret, and giving her, as she furtively scanned them, a disheartening
+glimpse of new fields of knowledge to be breathlessly traversed in Mrs.
+Ballinger's wake. But to-day a number of maturer-looking volumes were
+adroitly mingled with the _primeurs_ of the press--Karl Marx jostled
+Professor Bergson, and the "Confessions of St. Augustine" lay beside
+the last work on "Mendelism"; so that even to Mrs. Leveret's fluttered
+perceptions it was clear that Mrs. Ballinger didn't in the least know
+what Osric Dane was likely to talk about, and had taken measures to be
+prepared for anything. Mrs. Leveret felt like a passenger on an ocean
+steamer who is told that there is no immediate danger, but that she had
+better put on her life-belt.
+
+It was a relief to be roused from these forebodings by Miss Van Vluyck's
+arrival.
+
+"Well, my dear," the new-comer briskly asked her hostess, "what subjects
+are we to discuss to-day?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger was furtively replacing a volume of Wordsworth by a copy
+of Verlaine. "I hardly know," she said, somewhat nervously. "Perhaps we
+had better leave that to circumstances."
+
+"Circumstances?" said Miss Van Vluyck drily. "That means, I suppose,
+that Laura Glyde will take the floor as usual, and we shall be deluged
+with literature."
+
+Philanthropy and statistics were Miss Van Vluyck's province, and she
+resented any tendency to divert their guest's attention from these
+topics.
+
+Mrs. Plinth at this moment appeared.
+
+"Literature?" she protested in a tone of remonstrance. "But this is
+perfectly unexpected. I understood we were to talk of Osric Dane's
+novel."
+
+Mrs. Ballinger winced at the discrimination, but let it pass. "We can
+hardly make that our chief subject--at least not _too_ intentionally,"
+she suggested. "Of course we can let our talk _drift_ in that direction;
+but we ought to have some other topic as an introduction, and that is
+what I wanted to consult you about. The fact is, we know so little
+of Osric Dane's tastes and interests that it is difficult to make any
+special preparation."
+
+"It may be difficult," said Mrs. Plinth with decision, "but it is
+necessary. I know what that happy-go-lucky principle leads to. As I told
+one of my nieces the other day, there are certain emergencies for which
+a lady should always be prepared. It's in shocking taste to wear colours
+when one pays a visit of condolence, or a last year's dress when there
+are reports that one's husband is on the wrong side of the market; and
+so it is with conversation. All I ask is that I should know beforehand
+what is to be talked about; then I feel sure of being able to say the
+proper thing."
+
+"I quite agree with you," Mrs. Ballinger assented; "but--"
+
+And at that instant, heralded by the fluttered parlourmaid, Osric Dane
+appeared upon the threshold.
+
+Mrs. Leveret told her sister afterward that she had known at a glance
+what was coming. She saw that Osric Dane was not going to meet them
+half way. That distinguished personage had indeed entered with an air of
+compulsion not calculated to promote the easy exercise of hospitality.
+She looked as though she were about to be photographed for a new edition
+of her books.
+
+The desire to propitiate a divinity is generally in inverse ratio to its
+responsiveness, and the sense of discouragement produced by Osric Dane's
+entrance visibly increased the Lunch Club's eagerness to please her. Any
+lingering idea that she might consider herself under an obligation to
+her entertainers was at once dispelled by her manner: as Mrs. Leveret
+said afterward to her sister, she had a way of looking at you that made
+you feel as if there was something wrong with your hat. This evidence
+of greatness produced such an immediate impression on the ladies that a
+shudder of awe ran through them when Mrs. Roby, as their hostess led
+the great personage into the dining-room, turned back to whisper to the
+others: "What a brute she is!"
+
+The hour about the table did not tend to revise this verdict. It was
+passed by Osric Dane in the silent deglutition of Mrs. Bollinger's menu,
+and by the members of the club in the emission of tentative platitudes
+which their guest seemed to swallow as perfunctorily as the successive
+courses of the luncheon.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger's reluctance to fix a topic had thrown the club into a
+mental disarray which increased with the return to the drawing-room,
+where the actual business of discussion was to open. Each lady waited
+for the other to speak; and there was a general shock of disappointment
+when their hostess opened the conversation by the painfully commonplace
+enquiry. "Is this your first visit to Hillbridge?"
+
+Even Mrs. Leveret was conscious that this was a bad beginning; and a
+vague impulse of deprecation made Miss Glyde interject: "It is a very
+small place indeed."
+
+Mrs. Plinth bristled. "We have a great many representative people," she
+said, in the tone of one who speaks for her order.
+
+Osric Dane turned to her. "What do they represent?" she asked.
+
+Mrs. Plinth's constitutional dislike to being questioned was intensified
+by her sense of unpreparedness; and her reproachful glance passed the
+question on to Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Why," said that lady, glancing in turn at the other members, "as a
+community I hope it is not too much to say that we stand for culture."
+
+"For art--" Miss Glyde interjected.
+
+"For art and literature," Mrs. Ballinger emended.
+
+"And for sociology, I trust," snapped Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+"We have a standard," said Mrs. Plinth, feeling herself suddenly secure
+on the vast expanse of a generalisation; and Mrs. Leveret, thinking
+there must be room for more than one on so broad a statement, took
+courage to murmur: "Oh, certainly; we have a standard."
+
+"The object of our little club," Mrs. Ballinger continued, "is to
+concentrate the highest tendencies of Hillbridge--to centralise and
+focus its intellectual effort."
+
+This was felt to be so happy that the ladies drew an almost audible
+breath of relief.
+
+"We aspire," the President went on, "to be in touch with whatever is
+highest in art, literature and ethics."
+
+Osric Dane again turned to her. "What ethics?" she asked.
+
+A tremor of apprehension encircled the room. None of the ladies required
+any preparation to pronounce on a question of morals; but when they
+were called ethics it was different. The club, when fresh from
+the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," the "Reader's Handbook" or Smith's
+"Classical Dictionary," could deal confidently with any subject; but
+when taken unawares it had been known to define agnosticism as a heresy
+of the Early Church and Professor Froude as a distinguished histologist;
+and such minor members as Mrs. Leveret still secretly regarded ethics as
+something vaguely pagan.
+
+Even to Mrs. Ballinger, Osric Dane's question was unsettling, and there
+was a general sense of gratitude when Laura Glyde leaned forward to say,
+with her most sympathetic accent: "You must excuse us, Mrs. Dane, for
+not being able, just at present, to talk of anything but 'The Wings of
+Death."'
+
+"Yes," said Miss Van Vluyck, with a sudden resolve to carry the war into
+the enemy's camp. "We are so anxious to know the exact purpose you had
+in mind in writing your wonderful book."
+
+"You will find," Mrs. Plinth interposed, "that we are not superficial
+readers."
+
+"We are eager to hear from you," Miss Van Vluyck continued, "if
+the pessimistic tendency of the book is an expression of your own
+convictions or--"
+
+"Or merely," Miss Glyde thrust in, "a sombre background brushed in
+to throw your figures into more vivid relief. _Are_ you not primarily
+plastic?"
+
+"I have always maintained," Mrs. Ballinger interposed, "that you
+represent the purely objective method--"
+
+Osric Dane helped herself critically to coffee. "How do you define
+objective?" she then enquired.
+
+There was a flurried pause before Laura Glyde intensely murmured: "In
+reading _you_ we don't define, we feel."
+
+Otsric Dane smiled. "The cerebellum," she remarked, "is not infrequently
+the seat of the literary emotions." And she took a second lump of sugar.
+
+The sting that this remark was vaguely felt to conceal was almost
+neutralised by the satisfaction of being addressed in such technical
+language.
+
+"Ah, the cerebellum," said Miss Van Vluyck complacently. "The club took
+a course in psychology last winter."
+
+"Which psychology?" asked Osric Dane.
+
+There was an agonising pause, during which each member of the club
+secretly deplored the distressing inefficiency of the others. Only Mrs.
+Roby went on placidly sipping her chartreuse. At last Mrs. Ballinger
+said, with an attempt at a high tone: "Well, really, you know, it was
+last year that we took psychology, and this winter we have been so
+absorbed in--"
+
+She broke off, nervously trying to recall some of the club's
+discussions; but her faculties seemed to be paralysed by the petrifying
+stare of Osric Dane. What _had_ the club been absorbed in? Mrs.
+Ballinger, with a vague purpose of gaining time, repeated slowly: "We've
+been so intensely absorbed in--"
+
+Mrs. Roby put down her liqueur glass and drew near the group with a
+smile.
+
+"In Xingu?" she gently prompted.
+
+A thrill ran through the other members. They exchanged confused
+glances, and then, with one accord, turned a gaze of mingled relief
+and interrogation on their rescuer. The expression of each denoted
+a different phase of the same emotion. Mrs. Plinth was the first to
+compose her features to an air of reassurance: after a moment's hasty
+adjustment her look almost implied that it was she who had given the
+word to Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Xingu, of course!" exclaimed the latter with her accustomed promptness,
+while Miss Van Vluyck and Laura Glyde seemed to be plumbing the depths
+of memory, and Mrs. Leveret, feeling apprehensively for Appropriate
+Allusions, was somehow reassured by the uncomfortable pressure of its
+bulk against her person.
+
+Osric Dane's change of countenance was no less striking than that of
+her entertainers. She too put down her coffee-cup, but with a look of
+distinct annoyance; she too wore, for a brief moment, what Mrs. Roby
+afterward described as the look of feeling for something in the back
+of her head; and before she could dissemble these momentary signs of
+weakness, Mrs. Roby, turning to her with a deferential smile, had said:
+"And we've been so hoping that to-day you would tell us just what you
+think of it."
+
+Osric Dane received the homage of the smile as a matter of course; but
+the accompanying question obviously embarrassed her, and it became clear
+to her observers that she was not quick at shifting her facial scenery.
+It was as though her countenance had so long been set in an expression
+of unchallenged superiority that the muscles had stiffened, and refused
+to obey her orders.
+
+"Xingu--" she said, as if seeking in her turn to gain time.
+
+Mrs. Roby continued to press her. "Knowing how engrossing the subject
+is, you will understand how it happens that the club has let everything
+else go to the wall for the moment. Since we took up Xingu I might
+almost say--were it not for your books--that nothing else seems to us
+worth remembering."
+
+Osric Dane's stern features were darkened rather than lit up by an
+uneasy smile. "I am glad to hear that you make one exception," she gave
+out between narrowed lips.
+
+"Oh, of course," Mrs. Roby said prettily; "but as you have shown us
+that--so very naturally!--you don't care to talk of your own things, we
+really can't let you off from telling us exactly what you think about
+Xingu; especially," she added, with a still more persuasive smile, "as
+some people say that one of your last books was saturated with it."
+
+It was an _it_, then--the assurance sped like fire through the parched
+minds of the other members. In their eagerness to gain the least
+little clue to Xingu they almost forgot the joy of assisting at the
+discomfiture of Mrs. Dane.
+
+The latter reddened nervously under her antagonist's challenge. "May I
+ask," she faltered out, "to which of my books you refer?"
+
+Mrs. Roby did not falter. "That's just what I want you to tell us;
+because, though I was present, I didn't actually take part."
+
+"Present at what?" Mrs. Dane took her up; and for an instant the
+trembling members of the Lunch Club thought that the champion Providence
+had raised up for them had lost a point. But Mrs. Roby explained herself
+gaily: "At the discussion, of course. And so we're dreadfully anxious to
+know just how it was that you went into the Xingu."
+
+There was a portentous pause, a silence so big with incalculable dangers
+that the members with one accord checked the words on their lips, like
+soldiers dropping their arms to watch a single combat between their
+leaders. Then Mrs. Dane gave expression to their inmost dread by saying
+sharply: "Ah--you say _the_ Xingu, do you?"
+
+Mrs. Roby smiled undauntedly. "It is a shade pedantic, isn't it?
+Personally, I always drop the article; but I don't know how the other
+members feel about it."
+
+The other members looked as though they would willingly have dispensed
+with this appeal to their opinion, and Mrs. Roby, after a bright glance
+about the group, went on: "They probably think, as I do, that nothing
+really matters except the thing itself--except Xingu."
+
+No immediate reply seemed to occur to Mrs. Dane, and Mrs. Ballinger
+gathered courage to say: "Surely every one must feel that about Xingu."
+
+Mrs. Plinth came to her support with a heavy murmur of assent, and Laura
+Glyde sighed out emotionally: "I have known cases where it has changed a
+whole life."
+
+"It has done me worlds of good," Mrs. Leveret interjected, seeming to
+herself to remember that she had either taken it or read it the winter
+before.
+
+"Of course," Mrs. Roby admitted, "the difficulty is that one must give
+up so much time to it. It's very long."
+
+"I can't imagine," said Miss Van Vluyck, "grudging the time given to
+such a subject."
+
+"And deep in places," Mrs. Roby pursued; (so then it was a book!) "And
+it isn't easy to skip."
+
+"I never skip," said Mrs. Plinth dogmatically.
+
+"Ah, it's dangerous to, in Xingu. Even at the start there are places
+where one can't. One must just wade through."
+
+"I should hardly call it _wading_," said Mrs. Ballinger sarcastically.
+
+Mrs. Roby sent her a look of interest. "Ah--you always found it went
+swimmingly?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger hesitated. "Of course there are difficult passages," she
+conceded.
+
+"Yes; some are not at all clear--even," Mrs. Roby added, "if one is
+familiar with the original."
+
+"As I suppose you are?" Osric Dane interposed, suddenly fixing her with
+a look of challenge.
+
+Mrs. Roby met it by a deprecating gesture. "Oh, it's really not
+difficult up to a certain point; though some of the branches are very
+little known, and it's almost impossible to get at the source."
+
+"Have you ever tried?" Mrs. Plinth enquired, still distrustful of Mrs.
+Roby's thoroughness.
+
+Mrs. Roby was silent for a moment; then she replied with lowered lids:
+"No--but a friend of mine did; a very brilliant man; and he told me it
+was best for women--not to...."
+
+A shudder ran around the room. Mrs. Leveret coughed so that the
+parlour-maid, who was handing the cigarettes, should not hear; Miss Van
+Vluyck's face took on a nauseated expression, and Mrs. Plinth looked as
+if she were passing some one she did not care to bow to. But the most
+remarkable result of Mrs. Roby's words was the effect they produced on
+the Lunch Club's distinguished guest. Osric Dane's impassive features
+suddenly softened to an expression of the warmest human sympathy, and
+edging her chair toward Mrs. Roby's she asked: "Did he really? And--did
+you find he was right?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger, in whom annoyance at Mrs. Roby's unwonted assumption
+of prominence was beginning to displace gratitude for the aid she had
+rendered, could not consent to her being allowed, by such dubious means,
+to monopolise the attention of their guest. If Osric Dane had not enough
+self-respect to resent Mrs. Roby's flippancy, at least the Lunch Club
+would do so in the person of its President.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger laid her hand on Mrs. Roby's arm. "We must not forget,"
+she said with a frigid amiability, "that absorbing as Xingu is to _us_,
+it may be less interesting to--"
+
+"Oh, no, on the contrary, I assure you," Osric Dane intervened.
+
+"--to others," Mrs. Ballinger finished firmly; "and we must not allow
+our little meeting to end without persuading Mrs. Dane to say a few
+words to us on a subject which, to-day, is much more present in all our
+thoughts. I refer, of course, to 'The Wings of Death.'"
+
+The other members, animated by various degrees of the same sentiment,
+and encouraged by the humanised mien of their redoubtable guest,
+repeated after Mrs. Ballinger: "Oh, yes, you really _must_ talk to us a
+little about your book."
+
+Osric Dane's expression became as bored, though not as haughty, as when
+her work had been previously mentioned. But before she could respond
+to Mrs. Ballinger's request, Mrs. Roby had risen from her seat, and was
+pulling down her veil over her frivolous nose.
+
+"I'm so sorry," she said, advancing toward her hostess with outstretched
+hand, "but before Mrs. Dane begins I think I'd better run away.
+Unluckily, as you know, I haven't read her books, so I should be at a
+terrible disadvantage among you all, and besides, I've an engagement to
+play bridge."
+
+If Mrs. Roby had simply pleaded her ignorance of Osric Dane's works as
+a reason for withdrawing, the Lunch Club, in view of her recent prowess,
+might have approved such evidence of discretion; but to couple this
+excuse with the brazen announcement that she was foregoing the privilege
+for the purpose of joining a bridge-party was only one more instance of
+her deplorable lack of discrimination.
+
+The ladies were disposed, however, to feel that her departure--now
+that she had performed the sole service she was ever likely to render
+them--would probably make for greater order and dignity in the impending
+discussion, besides relieving them of the sense of self-distrust which
+her presence always mysteriously produced. Mrs. Ballinger therefore
+restricted herself to a formal murmur of regret, and the other members
+were just grouping themselves comfortably about Osric Dane when the
+latter, to their dismay, started up from the sofa on which she had been
+seated.
+
+"Oh wait--do wait, and I'll go with you!" she called out to Mrs. Roby;
+and, seizing the hands of the disconcerted members, she administered
+a series of farewell pressures with the mechanical haste of a
+railway-conductor punching tickets.
+
+"I'm so sorry--I'd quite forgotten--" she flung back at them from the
+threshold; and as she joined Mrs. Roby, who had turned in surprise at
+her appeal, the other ladies had the mortification of hearing her say,
+in a voice which she did not take the pains to lower: "If you'll let
+me walk a little way with you, I should so like to ask you a few more
+questions about Xingu...."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+The incident had been so rapid that the door closed on the departing
+pair before the other members had time to understand what was
+happening. Then a sense of the indignity put upon them by Osric Dane's
+unceremonious desertion began to contend with the confused feeling that
+they had been cheated out of their due without exactly knowing how or
+why.
+
+There was a silence, during which Mrs. Ballinger, with a perfunctory
+hand, rearranged the skilfully grouped literature at which her
+distinguished guest had not so much as glanced; then Miss Van Vluyck
+tartly pronounced: "Well, I can't say that I consider Osric Dane's
+departure a great loss."
+
+This confession crystallised the resentment of the other members, and
+Mrs. Leveret exclaimed: "I do believe she came on purpose to be nasty!"
+
+It was Mrs. Plinth's private opinion that Osric Dane's attitude toward
+the Lunch Club might have been very different had it welcomed her in the
+majestic setting of the Plinth drawing-rooms; but not liking to reflect
+on the inadequacy of Mrs. Ballinger's establishment she sought a
+roundabout satisfaction in depreciating her lack of foresight.
+
+"I said from the first that we ought to have had a subject ready. It's
+what always happens when you're unprepared. Now if we'd only got up
+Xingu--"
+
+The slowness of Mrs. Plinth's mental processes was always allowed for
+by the club; but this instance of it was too much for Mrs. Ballinger's
+equanimity.
+
+"Xingu!" she scoffed. "Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more
+about it than she did--unprepared though we were--that made Osric Dane
+so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to everybody!"
+
+This retort impressed even Mrs. Plinth, and Laura Glyde, moved by an
+impulse of generosity, said: "Yes, we really ought to be grateful
+to Mrs. Roby for introducing the topic. It may have made Osric Dane
+furious, but at least it made her civil."
+
+"I am glad we were able to show her," added Miss Van Vluyck, "that a
+broad and up-to-date culture is not confined to the great intellectual
+centres."
+
+This increased the satisfaction of the other members, and they began
+to forget their wrath against Osric Dane in the pleasure of having
+contributed to her discomfiture.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck thoughtfully rubbed her spectacles. "What surprised me
+most," she continued, "was that Fanny Roby should be so up on Xingu."
+
+This remark threw a slight chill on the company, but Mrs. Ballinger
+said with an air of indulgent irony: "Mrs. Roby always has the knack of
+making a little go a long way; still, we certainly owe her a debt for
+happening to remember that she'd heard of Xingu." And this was felt by
+the other members to be a graceful way of cancelling once for all the
+club's obligation to Mrs. Roby.
+
+Even Mrs. Leveret took courage to speed a timid shaft of irony. "I fancy
+Osric Dane hardly expected to take a lesson in Xingu at Hillbridge!"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger smiled. "When she asked me what we represented--do you
+remember?--I wish I'd simply said we represented Xingu!"
+
+All the ladies laughed appreciatively at this sally, except Mrs. Plinth,
+who said, after a moment's deliberation: "I'm not sure it would have
+been wise to do so."
+
+Mrs. Ballinger, who was already beginning to feel as if she had
+launched at Osric Dane the retort which had just occurred to her, turned
+ironically on Mrs. Plinth. "May I ask why?" she enquired.
+
+Mrs. Plinth looked grave. "Surely," she said, "I understood from Mrs.
+Roby herself that the subject was one it was as well not to go into too
+deeply?"
+
+Miss Van Vluyck rejoined with precision: "I think that applied only to
+an investigation of the origin of the--of the--"; and suddenly she found
+that her usually accurate memory had failed her. "It's a part of the
+subject I never studied myself/," she concluded.
+
+"Nor I," said Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+Laura Glyde bent toward them with widened eyes. "And yet it
+seems--doesn't it?--the part that is fullest of an esoteric
+fascination?"
+
+"I don't know on what you base that," said Miss Van Vluyck
+argumentatively.
+
+"Well, didn't you notice how intensely interested Osric Dane became as
+soon as she heard what the brilliant foreigner--he _was_ a foreigner,
+wasn't he?--had told Mrs. Roby about the origin--the origin of the
+rite--or whatever you call it?"
+
+Mrs. Plinth looked disapproving, and Mrs. Ballinger visibly wavered.
+Then she said: "It may not be desirable to touch on the--on that part
+of the subject in general conversation; but, from the importance it
+evidently has to a woman of Osric Dane's distinction, I feel as if
+we ought not to be afraid to discuss it among ourselves--without
+gloves--though with closed doors, if necessary."
+
+"I'm quite of your opinion," Miss Van Vluyck came briskly to her
+support; "on condition, that is, that all grossness of language is
+avoided."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure we shall understand without that," Mrs. Leveret tittered;
+and Laura Glyde added significantly: "I fancy we can read between the
+lines," while Mrs. Ballinger rose to assure herself that the doors
+were really closed.
+
+Mrs. Plinth had not yet given her adhesion. "I hardly see," she
+began, "what benefit is to be derived from investigating such peculiar
+customs--"
+
+But Mrs. Ballinger's patience had reached the extreme limit of tension.
+"This at least," she returned; "that we shall not be placed again in the
+humiliating position of finding ourselves less up on our own subjects
+than Fanny Roby!"
+
+Even to Mrs. Plinth this argument was conclusive. She peered furtively
+about the room and lowered her commanding tones to ask: "Have you got a
+copy?"
+
+"A--a copy?" stammered Mrs. Ballinger. She was aware that the other
+members were looking at her expectantly, and that this answer was
+inadequate, so she supported it by asking another question. "A copy of
+what?"
+
+Her companions bent their expectant gaze on Mrs. Plinth, who, in turn,
+appeared less sure of herself than usual. "Why, of--of--the book," she
+explained.
+
+"What book?" snapped Miss Van Vluyck, almost as sharply as Osric Dane.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger looked at Laura Glyde, whose eyes were interrogatively
+fixed on Mrs. Leveret. The fact of being deferred to was so new to
+the latter that it filled her with an insane temerity. "Why, Xingu, of
+course!" she exclaimed.
+
+A profound silence followed this challenge to the resources of Mrs.
+Ballinger's library, and the latter, after glancing nervously toward the
+Books of the Day, returned with dignity: "It's not a thing one cares to
+leave about."
+
+"I should think not!" exclaimed Mrs. Plinth.
+
+"It _is_ a book, then?" said Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+This again threw the company into disarray, and Mrs. Ballinger, with an
+impatient sigh, rejoined: "Why--there _is_ a book--naturally...."
+
+"Then why did Miss Glyde call it a religion?"
+
+Laura Glyde started up. "A religion? I never--"
+
+"Yes, you did," Miss Van Vluyck insisted; "you spoke of rites; and Mrs.
+Plinth said it was a custom."
+
+Miss Glyde was evidently making a desperate effort to recall her
+statement; but accuracy of detail was not her strongest point. At length
+she began in a deep murmur: "Surely they used to do something of the
+kind at the Eleusinian mysteries--"
+
+"Oh--" said Miss Van Vluyck, on the verge of disapproval; and Mrs.
+Plinth protested: "I understood there was to be no indelicacy!"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger could not control her irritation. "Really, it is too
+bad that we should not be able to talk the matter over quietly among
+ourselves. Personally, I think that if one goes into Xingu at all--"
+
+"Oh, so do I!" cried Miss Glyde.
+
+"And I don't see how one can avoid doing so, if one wishes to keep up
+with the Thought of the Day--"
+
+Mrs. Leveret uttered an exclamation of relief. "There--that's it!" she
+interposed.
+
+"What's it?" the President took her up.
+
+"Why--it's a--a Thought: I mean a philosophy."
+
+This seemed to bring a certain relief to Mrs. Ballinger and Laura Glyde,
+but Miss Van Vluyck said: "Excuse me if I tell you that you're all
+mistaken. Xingu happens to be a language."
+
+"A language!" the Lunch Club cried.
+
+"Certainly. Don't you remember Fanny Roby's saying that there were
+several branches, and that some were hard to trace? What could that
+apply to but dialects?"
+
+Mrs. Ballinger could no longer restrain a contemptuous laugh. "Really,
+if the Lunch Club has reached such a pass that it has to go to Fanny
+Roby for instruction on a subject like Xingu, it had almost better cease
+to exist!"
+
+"It's really her fault for not being clearer," Laura Glyde put in.
+
+"Oh, clearness and Fanny Roby!" Mrs. Ballinger shrugged. "I daresay we
+shall find she was mistaken on almost every point."
+
+"Why not look it up?" said Mrs. Plinth.
+
+As a rule this recurrent suggestion of Mrs. Plinth's was ignored in the
+heat of discussion, and only resorted to afterward in the privacy of
+each member's home. But on the present occasion the desire to ascribe
+their own confusion of thought to the vague and contradictory nature of
+Mrs. Roby's statements caused the members of the Lunch Club to utter a
+collective demand for a book of reference.
+
+At this point the production of her treasured volume gave Mrs. Leveret,
+for a moment, the unusual experience of occupying the centre front; but
+she was not able to hold it long, for Appropriate Allusions contained no
+mention of Xingu.
+
+"Oh, that's not the kind of thing we want!" exclaimed Miss Van Vluyck.
+She cast a disparaging glance over Mrs. Ballinger's assortment of
+literature, and added impatiently: "Haven't you any useful books?"
+
+"Of course I have," replied Mrs. Ballinger indignantly; "I keep them in
+my husband's dressing-room."
+
+From this region, after some difficulty and delay, the parlour-maid
+produced the W-Z volume of an Encyclopaedia and, in deference to the
+fact that the demand for it had come from Miss Van Vluyck, laid the
+ponderous tome before her.
+
+There was a moment of painful suspense while Miss Van Vluyck rubbed her
+spectacles, adjusted them, and turned to Z; and a murmur of surprise
+when she said: "It isn't here."
+
+"I suppose," said Mrs. Plinth, "it's not fit to be put in a book of
+reference."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Ballinger. "Try X."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck turned back through the volume, peering short-sightedly
+up and down the pages, till she came to a stop and remained motionless,
+like a dog on a point.
+
+"Well, have you found it?" Mrs. Ballinger enquired after a considerable
+delay.
+
+"Yes. I've found it," said Miss Van Vluyck in a queer voice.
+
+Mrs. Plinth hastily interposed: "I beg you won't read it aloud if
+there's anything offensive."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck, without answering, continued her silent scrutiny.
+
+"Well, what _is_ it?" exclaimed Laura Glyde excitedly.
+
+"_Do_ tell us!" urged Mrs. Leveret, feeling that she would have
+something awful to tell her sister.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck pushed the volume aside and turned slowly toward the
+expectant group.
+
+"It's a river."
+
+"A _river?_"
+
+"Yes: in Brazil. Isn't that where she's been living?"
+
+"Who? Fanny Roby? Oh, but you must be mistaken. You've been reading the
+wrong thing," Mrs. Ballinger exclaimed, leaning over her to seize the
+volume.
+
+"It's the only Xingu in the Encyclopaedia; and she _has_ been living in
+Brazil," Miss Van Vluyck persisted.
+
+"Yes: her brother has a consulship there," Mrs. Leveret interposed.
+
+"But it's too ridiculous! I--we--why we _all_ remember studying Xingu
+last year--or the year before last," Mrs. Ballinger stammered.
+
+"I thought I did when _you_ said so," Laura Glyde avowed.
+
+"I said so?" cried Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Yes. You said it had crowded everything else out of your mind."
+
+"Well _you_ said it had changed your whole life!"
+
+"For that matter. Miss Van Vluyck said she had never grudged the time
+she'd given it."
+
+Mrs. Plinth interposed: "I made it clear that I knew nothing whatever of
+the original."
+
+Mrs. Ballinger broke off the dispute with a groan. "Oh, what does it
+all matter if she's been making fools of us? I believe Miss Van Vluyck's
+right--she was talking of the river all the while!"
+
+"How could she? It's too preposterous," Miss Glyde exclaimed.
+
+"Listen." Miss Van Vluyck had repossessed herself of the Encyclopaedia,
+and restored her spectacles to a nose reddened by excitement. "'The
+Xingu, one of the principal rivers of Brazil, rises on the plateau of
+Mato Grosso, and flows in a northerly direction for a length of no less
+than one thousand one hundred and eighteen miles, entering the Amazon
+near the mouth of the latter river. The upper course of the Xingu is
+auriferous and fed by numerous branches. Its source was first discovered
+in 1884 by the German explorer von den Steinen, after a difficult and
+dangerous expedition through a region inhabited by tribes still in the
+Stone Age of culture.'"
+
+The ladies received this communication in a state of stupefied silence
+from which Mrs. Leveret was the first to rally. "She certainly _did_
+speak of its having branches."
+
+The word seemed to snap the last thread of their incredulity. "And of
+its great length," gasped Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"She said it was awfully deep, and you couldn't skip--you just had to
+wade through," Miss Glyde added.
+
+The idea worked its way more slowly through Mrs. Plinth's compact
+resistances. "How could there be anything improper about a river?" she
+enquired.
+
+"Improper?"
+
+"Why, what she said about the source--that it was corrupt?"
+
+"Not corrupt, but hard to get at," Laura Glyde corrected. "Some
+one who'd been there had told her so. I daresay it was the explorer
+himself--doesn't it say the expedition was dangerous?"
+
+"'Difficult and dangerous,'" read Miss Van Vluyck.
+
+Mrs. Ballinger pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. "There's
+nothing she said that wouldn't apply to a river--to this river!" She
+swung about excitedly to the other members. "Why, do you remember her
+telling us that she hadn't read 'The Supreme Instant' because she'd
+taken it on a boating party while she was staying with her brother,
+and some one had 'shied' it overboard--'shied' of course was her own
+expression."
+
+The ladies breathlessly signified that the expression had not escaped
+them.
+
+"Well--and then didn't she tell Osric Dane that one of her books was
+simply saturated with Xingu? Of course it was, if one of Mrs. Roby's
+rowdy friends had thrown it into the river!"
+
+This surprising reconstruction of the scene in which they had just
+participated left the members of the Lunch Club inarticulate. At length,
+Mrs. Plinth, after visibly labouring with the problem, said in a heavy
+tone: "Osric Dane was taken in too."
+
+Mrs. Leveret took courage at this. "Perhaps that's what Mrs. Roby did
+it for. She said Osric Dane was a brute, and she may have wanted to give
+her a lesson."
+
+Miss Van Vluyck frowned. "It was hardly worth while to do it at our
+expense."
+
+"At least," said Miss Glyde with a touch of bitterness, "she succeeded
+in interesting her, which was more than we did."
+
+"What chance had we?" rejoined Mrs. Ballinger.
+
+"Mrs. Roby monopolised her from the first. And _that_, I've no doubt,
+was her purpose--to give Osric Dane a false impression of her own
+standing in the club. She would hesitate at nothing to attract
+attention: we all know how she took in poor Professor Foreland."
+
+"She actually makes him give bridge-teas every Thursday," Mrs. Leveret
+piped up.
+
+Laura Glyde struck her hands together. "Why, this is Thursday, and it's
+_there_ she's gone, of course; and taken Osric with her!"
+
+"And they're shrieking over us at this moment," said Mrs. Ballinger
+between her teeth.
+
+This possibility seemed too preposterous to be admitted. "She would
+hardly dare," said Miss Van Vluyck, "confess the imposture to Osric
+Dane."
+
+"I'm not so sure: I thought I saw her make a sign as she left. If she
+hadn't made a sign, why should Osric Dane have rushed out after her?"
+
+"Well, you know, we'd all been telling her how wonderful Xingu was, and
+she said she wanted to find out more about it," Mrs. Leveret said, with
+a tardy impulse of justice to the absent.
+
+This reminder, far from mitigating the wrath of the other members, gave
+it a stronger impetus.
+
+"Yes--and that's exactly what they're both laughing over now," said
+Laura Glyde ironically.
+
+Mrs. Plinth stood up and gathered her expensive furs about her
+monumental form. "I have no wish to criticise," she said; "but unless
+the Lunch Club can protect its members against the recurrence of
+such--such unbecoming scenes, I for one--"
+
+"Oh, so do I!" agreed Miss Glyde, rising also.
+
+Miss Van Vluyck closed the Encyclopaedia and proceeded to button herself
+into her jacket "My time is really too valuable--" she began.
+
+"I fancy we are all of one mind," said Mrs. Ballinger, looking
+searchingly at Mrs. Leveret, who looked at the others.
+
+"I always deprecate anything like a scandal--" Mrs. Plinth continued.
+
+"She has been the cause of one to-day!" exclaimed Miss Glyde.
+
+Mrs. Leveret moaned: "I don't see how she _could!_" and Miss Van Vluyck
+said, picking up her note-book: "Some women stop at nothing."
+
+"--but if," Mrs. Plinth took up her argument impressively, "anything
+of the kind had happened in _my_ house" (it never would have, her tone
+implied), "I should have felt that I owed it to myself either to ask for
+Mrs. Roby's resignation--or to offer mine."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Plinth--" gasped the Lunch Club.
+
+"Fortunately for me," Mrs. Plinth continued with an awful magnanimity,
+"the matter was taken out of my hands by our President's decision that
+the right to entertain distinguished guests was a privilege vested in
+her office; and I think the other members will agree that, as she was
+alone in this opinion, she ought to be alone in deciding on the best way
+of effacing its--its really deplorable consequences."
+
+A deep silence followed this outbreak of Mrs. Plinth's long-stored
+resentment.
+
+"I don't see why I should be expected to ask her to resign--" Mrs.
+Ballinger at length began; but Laura Glyde turned back to remind her:
+"You know she made you say that you'd got on swimmingly in Xingu."
+
+An ill-timed giggle escaped from Mrs. Leveret, and Mrs. Ballinger
+energetically continued "--but you needn't think for a moment that I'm
+afraid to!"
+
+The door of the drawing-room closed on the retreating backs of the
+Lunch Club, and the President of that distinguished association, seating
+herself at her writing-table, and pushing away a copy of "The Wings of
+Death" to make room for her elbow, drew forth a sheet of the club's
+note-paper, on which she began to write: "My dear Mrs. Roby--"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
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diff --git a/24131.zip b/24131.zip
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #24131 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24131)
diff --git a/old/24131-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/24131-h.htm.2021-01-25
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Xingu, by Edith Wharton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Xingu
+       1916
+
+Author: Edith Wharton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24131]
+Last Updated: October 3, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      XINGU
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Edith Wharton <br /><br /> Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner&rsquo;s Sons
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though
+      it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded the Lunch
+      Club, an association composed of herself and several other indomitable
+      huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four winters of
+      lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that the
+      entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted
+      functions; in recognition of which it duly extended to the celebrated
+      &ldquo;Osric Dane,&rdquo; on the day of her arrival in Hillbridge, an invitation to be
+      present at the next meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The club was to meet at Mrs. Bellinger&rsquo;s. The other members, behind her
+      back, were of one voice in deploring her unwillingness to cede her rights
+      in favor of Mrs. Plinth, whose house made a more impressive setting for
+      the entertainment of celebrities; while, as Mrs. Leveret observed, there
+      was always the picture-gallery to fall back on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth made no secret of sharing this view. She had always regarded
+      it as one of her obligations to entertain the Lunch Club&rsquo;s distinguished
+      guests. Mrs. Plinth was almost as proud of her obligations as she was of
+      her picture-gallery; she was in fact fond of implying that the one
+      possession implied the other, and that only a woman of her wealth could
+      afford to live up to a standard as high as that which she had set herself.
+      An all-round sense of duty, roughly adaptable to various ends, was, in her
+      opinion, all that Providence exacted of the more humbly stationed; but the
+      power which had predestined Mrs. Plinth to keep a footman clearly intended
+      her to maintain an equally specialized staff of responsibilities. It was
+      the more to be regretted that Mrs. Ballinger, whose obligations to society
+      were bounded by the narrow scope of two parlour-maids, should have been so
+      tenacious of the right to entertain Osric Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question of that lady&rsquo;s reception had for a month past profoundly
+      moved the members of the Lunch Club. It was not that they felt themselves
+      unequal to the task, but that their sense of the opportunity plunged them
+      into the agreeable uncertainty of the lady who weighs the alternatives of
+      a well-stocked wardrobe. If such subsidiary members as Mrs. Leveret were
+      fluttered by the thought of exchanging ideas with the author of &ldquo;The Wings
+      of Death,&rdquo; no forebodings disturbed the conscious adequacy of Mrs. Plinth,
+      Mrs. Ballinger and Miss Van Vluyck. &ldquo;The Wings of Death&rdquo; had, in fact, at
+      Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s suggestion, been chosen as the subject of discussion at
+      the last club meeting, and each member had thus been enabled to express
+      her own opinion or to appropriate whatever sounded well in the comments of
+      the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby alone had abstained from profiting by the opportunity; but it
+      was now openly recognised that, as a member of the Lunch Club, Mrs. Roby
+      was a failure. &ldquo;It all comes,&rdquo; as Miss Van Vluyck put it, &ldquo;of accepting a
+      woman on a man&rsquo;s estimation.&rdquo; Mrs. Roby, returning to Hillbridge from a
+      prolonged sojourn in exotic lands&mdash;the other ladies no longer took
+      the trouble to remember where&mdash;had been heralded by the distinguished
+      biologist, Professor Foreland, as the most agreeable woman he had ever
+      met; and the members of the Lunch Club, impressed by an encomium that
+      carried the weight of a diploma, and rashly assuming that the Professor&rsquo;s
+      social sympathies would follow the line of his professional bent, had
+      seized the chance of annexing a biological member. Their disillusionment
+      was complete. At Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s first off-hand mention of the
+      pterodactyl Mrs. Roby had confusedly murmured: &ldquo;I know so little about
+      metres&mdash;&rdquo; and after that painful betrayal of incompetence she had
+      prudently withdrawn from farther participation in the mental gymnastics of
+      the club.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose she flattered him,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck summed up&mdash;&ldquo;or else
+      it&rsquo;s the way she does her hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dimensions of Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s dining-room having restricted the
+      membership of the club to six, the nonconductiveness of one member was a
+      serious obstacle to the exchange of ideas, and some wonder had already
+      been expressed that Mrs. Roby should care to live, as it were, on the
+      intellectual bounty of the others. This feeling was increased by the
+      discovery that she had not yet read &ldquo;The Wings of Death.&rdquo; She owned to
+      having heard the name of Osric Dane; but that&mdash;incredible as it
+      appeared&mdash;was the extent of her acquaintance with the celebrated
+      novelist. The ladies could not conceal their surprise; but Mrs. Ballinger,
+      whose pride in the club made her wish to put even Mrs. Roby in the best
+      possible light, gently insinuated that, though she had not had time to
+      acquaint herself with &ldquo;The Wings of Death,&rdquo; she must at least be familiar
+      with its equally remarkable predecessor, &ldquo;The Supreme Instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby wrinkled her sunny brows in a conscientious effort of memory, as
+      a result of which she recalled that, oh, yes, she <i>had</i> seen the book
+      at her brother&rsquo;s, when she was staying with him in Brazil, and had even
+      carried it off to read one day on a boating party; but they had all got to
+      shying things at each other in the boat, and the book had gone overboard,
+      so she had never had the chance&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The picture evoked by this anecdote did not increase Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s credit
+      with the club, and there was a painful pause, which was broken by Mrs.
+      Plinth&rsquo;s remarking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can understand that, with all your other pursuits, you should not find
+      much time for reading; but I should have thought you might at least have
+      <i>got up</i> &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; before Osric Dane&rsquo;s arrival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby took this rebuke good-humouredly. She had meant, she owned, to
+      glance through the book; but she had been so absorbed in a novel of
+      Trollope&rsquo;s that&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one reads Trollope now,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger interrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby looked pained. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m only just beginning,&rdquo; she confessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And does he interest you?&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He amuses me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amusement,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth, &ldquo;is hardly what I look for in my choice of
+      books.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, certainly, &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; is not amusing,&rdquo; ventured Mrs.
+      Leveret, whose manner of putting forth an opinion was like that of an
+      obliging salesman with a variety of other styles to submit if his first
+      selection does not suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it <i>meant</i> to be?&rdquo; enquired Mrs. Plinth, who was fond of asking
+      questions that she permitted no one but herself to answer. &ldquo;Assuredly
+      not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly not&mdash;that is what I was going to say,&rdquo; assented Mrs.
+      Leveret, hastily rolling up her opinion and reaching for another. &ldquo;It was
+      meant to&mdash;to elevate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck adjusted her spectacles as though they were the black cap
+      of condemnation. &ldquo;I hardly see,&rdquo; she interposed, &ldquo;how a book steeped in
+      the bitterest pessimism can be said to elevate however much it may
+      instruct.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant, of course, to instruct,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leveret, flurried by the
+      unexpected distinction between two terms which she had supposed to be
+      synonymous. Mrs. Leveret&rsquo;s enjoyment of the Lunch Club was frequently
+      marred by such surprises; and not knowing her own value to the other
+      ladies as a mirror for their mental complacency she was sometimes troubled
+      by a doubt of her worthiness to join in their debates. It was only the
+      fact of having a dull sister who thought her clever that saved her, from a
+      sense of hopeless inferiority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they get married in the end?&rdquo; Mrs. Roby interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They&mdash;who?&rdquo; the Lunch Club collectively exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the girl and man. It&rsquo;s a novel, isn&rsquo;t it? I always think that&rsquo;s the
+      one thing that matters. If they&rsquo;re parted it spoils my dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth and Mrs. Ballinger exchanged scandalised glances, and the
+      latter said: &ldquo;I should hardly advise you to read &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; in
+      that spirit. For my part, when there are so many books one <i>has</i> to
+      read; I wonder how any one can find time for those that are merely
+      amusing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The beautiful part of it,&rdquo; Laura Glyde murmured, &ldquo;is surely just this&mdash;that
+      no one can tell how &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo; ends. Osric Dane, overcome by the
+      awful significance of her own meaning, has mercifully veiled it&mdash;perhaps
+      even from herself&mdash;as Apelles, in representing the sacrifice of
+      Iphigenia, veiled the face of Agamemnon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that? Is it poetry?&rdquo; whispered Mrs. Leveret to Mrs. Plinth, who,
+      disdaining a definite reply, said coldly: &ldquo;You should look it up. I always
+      make it a point to look things up.&rdquo; Her tone added&mdash;&ldquo;though I might
+      easily have it done for me by the footman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was about to say,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck resumed, &ldquo;that it must always be a
+      question whether a book <i>can</i> instruct unless it elevates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&mdash;&rdquo; murmured Mrs. Leveret, now feeling herself hopelessly astray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger, scenting in Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s tone a
+      tendency to depreciate the coveted distinction of entertaining Osric Dane;
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that such a question can seriously be raised as to a book
+      which has attracted more attention among thoughtful people than any novel
+      since &lsquo;Robert Elsmere.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, but don&rsquo;t you see,&rdquo; exclaimed Laura Glyde, &ldquo;that it&rsquo;s just the dark
+      hopelessness of it all&mdash;the wonderful tone-scheme of black on black&mdash;that
+      makes it such an artistic achievement? It reminded me when I read it of
+      Prince Rupert&rsquo;s <i>manière noire</i>...the book is etched, not painted,
+      yet one feels the colour-values so intensely....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is he?&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret whispered to her neighbour. &ldquo;Some one she&rsquo;s met
+      abroad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wonderful part of the book,&rdquo; Mrs. Bellinger conceded, &ldquo;is that it may
+      be looked at from so many points of view. I hear that as a study of
+      determinism Professor Lupton ranks it with &lsquo;The Data of Ethics.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m told that Osric Dane spent ten years in preparatory studies before
+      beginning to write it,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth. &ldquo;She looks up everything&mdash;verifies
+      everything. It has always been my principle, as you know. Nothing would
+      induce me, now, to put aside a book before I&rsquo;d finished it, just because I
+      can buy as many more as I want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do <i>you</i> think of &lsquo;The Wings of Death&rsquo;?&rdquo; Mrs. Roby abruptly
+      asked her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the kind of question that might be termed out of order, and the
+      ladies glanced at each other as though disclaiming any share in such a
+      breach of discipline. They all knew there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so much
+      disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written to read;
+      if one read them what more could be expected? To be questioned in detail
+      regarding the contents of a volume seemed to her as great an outrage as
+      being searched for smuggled laces at the Custom House. The club had always
+      respected this idiosyncrasy of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s. Such opinions as she had
+      were imposing and substantial: her mind, like her house, was furnished
+      with monumental &ldquo;pieces&rdquo; that were not meant to be disarranged; and it was
+      one of the unwritten rules of the Lunch Club that, within her own
+      province, each member&rsquo;s habits of thought should be respected. The meeting
+      therefore closed with an increased sense, on the part of the other ladies,
+      of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s hopeless unfitness to be one of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret, on the eventful day, arrived early at Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s, her
+      volume of Appropriate Allusions in her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It always flustered Mrs. Leveret to be late at the Lunch Club: she liked
+      to collect her thoughts and gather a hint, as the others assembled, of the
+      turn the conversation was likely to take. To-day, however, she felt
+      herself completely at a loss; and even the familiar contact of Appropriate
+      Allusions, which stuck into her as she sat down, failed to give her any
+      reassurance. It was an admirable little volume, compiled to meet all the
+      social emergencies; so that, whether on the occasion of Anniversaries,
+      joyful or melancholy (as the classification ran), of Banquets, social or
+      municipal, or of Baptisms, Church of England or sectarian, its student
+      need never be at a loss for a pertinent reference. Mrs. Leveret, though
+      she had for years devoutly conned its pages, valued it, however, rather
+      for its moral support than for its practical services; for though in the
+      privacy of her own room she commanded an army of quotations, these
+      invariably deserted her at the critical moment, and the only phrase she
+      retained&mdash;<i>Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook</i>?&mdash;was
+      one she had never yet found occasion to apply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-day she felt that even the complete mastery of the volume would hardly
+      have insured her self-possession; for she thought it probable that, even
+      if she <i>did</i>, in some miraculous way, remember an Allusion, it would
+      be only to find that Osric Dane used a different volume (Mrs. Leveret was
+      convinced that literary people always carried them), and would
+      consequently not recognise her quotations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret&rsquo;s sense of being adrift was intensified by the appearance of
+      Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s drawing-room. To a careless eye its aspect was unchanged;
+      but those acquainted with Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s way of arranging her books
+      would instantly have detected the marks of recent perturbation. Mrs.
+      Ballinger&rsquo;s province, as a member of the Lunch Club, was the Book of the
+      Day. On that, whatever it was, from a novel to a treatise on experimental
+      psychology, she was confidently, authoritatively &ldquo;up.&rdquo; What became of last
+      year&rsquo;s books, or last week&rsquo;s even; what she did with the &ldquo;subjects&rdquo; she
+      had previously professed with equal authority; no one had ever yet
+      discovered. &lsquo;Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like
+      transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently
+      without paying for their board. It was Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s boast that she was
+      &ldquo;abreast with the Thought of the Day,&rdquo; and her pride that this advanced
+      position should be expressed by the books on her table. These volumes,
+      frequently renewed, and almost always damp from the press, bore names
+      generally unfamiliar to Mrs. Leveret, and giving her, as she furtively
+      scanned them, a disheartening glimpse of new fields of knowledge to be
+      breathlessly traversed in Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s wake. But to-day a number of
+      maturer-looking volumes were adroitly mingled with the <i>primeurs</i> of
+      the press&mdash;Karl Marx jostled Professor Bergson, and the &ldquo;Confessions
+      of St. Augustine&rdquo; lay beside the last work on &ldquo;Mendelism&rdquo;; so that even to
+      Mrs. Leveret&rsquo;s fluttered perceptions it was clear that Mrs. Ballinger
+      didn&rsquo;t in the least know what Osric Dane was likely to talk about, and had
+      taken measures to be prepared for anything. Mrs. Leveret felt like a
+      passenger on an ocean steamer who is told that there is no immediate
+      danger, but that she had better put on her life-belt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a relief to be roused from these forebodings by Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s
+      arrival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear,&rdquo; the new-comer briskly asked her hostess, &ldquo;what subjects
+      are we to discuss to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger was furtively replacing a volume of Wordsworth by a copy of
+      Verlaine. &ldquo;I hardly know,&rdquo; she said, somewhat nervously. &ldquo;Perhaps we had
+      better leave that to circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Circumstances?&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck drily. &ldquo;That means, I suppose, that
+      Laura Glyde will take the floor as usual, and we shall be deluged with
+      literature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Philanthropy and statistics were Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s province, and she
+      resented any tendency to divert their guest&rsquo;s attention from these topics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth at this moment appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Literature?&rdquo; she protested in a tone of remonstrance. &ldquo;But this is
+      perfectly unexpected. I understood we were to talk of Osric Dane&rsquo;s novel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger winced at the discrimination, but let it pass. &ldquo;We can
+      hardly make that our chief subject&mdash;at least not <i>too</i>
+      intentionally,&rdquo; she suggested. &ldquo;Of course we can let our talk <i>drift</i>
+      in that direction; but we ought to have some other topic as an
+      introduction, and that is what I wanted to consult you about. The fact is,
+      we know so little of Osric Dane&rsquo;s tastes and interests that it is
+      difficult to make any special preparation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be difficult,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth with decision, &ldquo;but it is
+      necessary. I know what that happy-go-lucky principle leads to. As I told
+      one of my nieces the other day, there are certain emergencies for which a
+      lady should always be prepared. It&rsquo;s in shocking taste to wear colours
+      when one pays a visit of condolence, or a last year&rsquo;s dress when there are
+      reports that one&rsquo;s husband is on the wrong side of the market; and so it
+      is with conversation. All I ask is that I should know beforehand what is
+      to be talked about; then I feel sure of being able to say the proper
+      thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite agree with you,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger assented; &ldquo;but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at that instant, heralded by the fluttered parlourmaid, Osric Dane
+      appeared upon the threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret told her sister afterward that she had known at a glance what
+      was coming. She saw that Osric Dane was not going to meet them half way.
+      That distinguished personage had indeed entered with an air of compulsion
+      not calculated to promote the easy exercise of hospitality. She looked as
+      though she were about to be photographed for a new edition of her books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The desire to propitiate a divinity is generally in inverse ratio to its
+      responsiveness, and the sense of discouragement produced by Osric Dane&rsquo;s
+      entrance visibly increased the Lunch Club&rsquo;s eagerness to please her. Any
+      lingering idea that she might consider herself under an obligation to her
+      entertainers was at once dispelled by her manner: as Mrs. Leveret said
+      afterward to her sister, she had a way of looking at you that made you
+      feel as if there was something wrong with your hat. This evidence of
+      greatness produced such an immediate impression on the ladies that a
+      shudder of awe ran through them when Mrs. Roby, as their hostess led the
+      great personage into the dining-room, turned back to whisper to the
+      others: &ldquo;What a brute she is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour about the table did not tend to revise this verdict. It was
+      passed by Osric Dane in the silent deglutition of Mrs. Bollinger&rsquo;s menu,
+      and by the members of the club in the emission of tentative platitudes
+      which their guest seemed to swallow as perfunctorily as the successive
+      courses of the luncheon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s reluctance to fix a topic had thrown the club into a
+      mental disarray which increased with the return to the drawing-room, where
+      the actual business of discussion was to open. Each lady waited for the
+      other to speak; and there was a general shock of disappointment when their
+      hostess opened the conversation by the painfully commonplace enquiry. &ldquo;Is
+      this your first visit to Hillbridge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Mrs. Leveret was conscious that this was a bad beginning; and a vague
+      impulse of deprecation made Miss Glyde interject: &ldquo;It is a very small
+      place indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth bristled. &ldquo;We have a great many representative people,&rdquo; she
+      said, in the tone of one who speaks for her order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane turned to her. &ldquo;What do they represent?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s constitutional dislike to being questioned was intensified
+      by her sense of unpreparedness; and her reproachful glance passed the
+      question on to Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said that lady, glancing in turn at the other members, &ldquo;as a
+      community I hope it is not too much to say that we stand for culture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For art&mdash;&rdquo; Miss Glyde interjected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For art and literature,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger emended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for sociology, I trust,&rdquo; snapped Miss Van Vluyck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a standard,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth, feeling herself suddenly secure on
+      the vast expanse of a generalisation; and Mrs. Leveret, thinking there
+      must be room for more than one on so broad a statement, took courage to
+      murmur: &ldquo;Oh, certainly; we have a standard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The object of our little club,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger continued, &ldquo;is to
+      concentrate the highest tendencies of Hillbridge&mdash;to centralise and
+      focus its intellectual effort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was felt to be so happy that the ladies drew an almost audible breath
+      of relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We aspire,&rdquo; the President went on, &ldquo;to be in touch with whatever is
+      highest in art, literature and ethics.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane again turned to her. &ldquo;What ethics?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A tremor of apprehension encircled the room. None of the ladies required
+      any preparation to pronounce on a question of morals; but when they were
+      called ethics it was different. The club, when fresh from the
+      &ldquo;Encyclopaedia Britannica,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Reader&rsquo;s Handbook&rdquo; or Smith&rsquo;s &ldquo;Classical
+      Dictionary,&rdquo; could deal confidently with any subject; but when taken
+      unawares it had been known to define agnosticism as a heresy of the Early
+      Church and Professor Froude as a distinguished histologist; and such minor
+      members as Mrs. Leveret still secretly regarded ethics as something
+      vaguely pagan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even to Mrs. Ballinger, Osric Dane&rsquo;s question was unsettling, and there
+      was a general sense of gratitude when Laura Glyde leaned forward to say,
+      with her most sympathetic accent: &ldquo;You must excuse us, Mrs. Dane, for not
+      being able, just at present, to talk of anything but &lsquo;The Wings of
+      Death.&rdquo;&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, with a sudden resolve to carry the war into
+      the enemy&rsquo;s camp. &ldquo;We are so anxious to know the exact purpose you had in
+      mind in writing your wonderful book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will find,&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth interposed, &ldquo;that we are not superficial
+      readers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are eager to hear from you,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck continued, &ldquo;if the
+      pessimistic tendency of the book is an expression of your own convictions
+      or&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or merely,&rdquo; Miss Glyde thrust in, &ldquo;a sombre background brushed in to
+      throw your figures into more vivid relief. <i>Are</i> you not primarily
+      plastic?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always maintained,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger interposed, &ldquo;that you represent
+      the purely objective method&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane helped herself critically to coffee. &ldquo;How do you define
+      objective?&rdquo; she then enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a flurried pause before Laura Glyde intensely murmured: &ldquo;In
+      reading <i>you</i> we don&rsquo;t define, we feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Otsric Dane smiled. &ldquo;The cerebellum,&rdquo; she remarked, &ldquo;is not infrequently
+      the seat of the literary emotions.&rdquo; And she took a second lump of sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sting that this remark was vaguely felt to conceal was almost
+      neutralised by the satisfaction of being addressed in such technical
+      language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, the cerebellum,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck complacently. &ldquo;The club took a
+      course in psychology last winter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which psychology?&rdquo; asked Osric Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an agonising pause, during which each member of the club
+      secretly deplored the distressing inefficiency of the others. Only Mrs.
+      Roby went on placidly sipping her chartreuse. At last Mrs. Ballinger said,
+      with an attempt at a high tone: &ldquo;Well, really, you know, it was last year
+      that we took psychology, and this winter we have been so absorbed in&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She broke off, nervously trying to recall some of the club&rsquo;s discussions;
+      but her faculties seemed to be paralysed by the petrifying stare of Osric
+      Dane. What <i>had</i> the club been absorbed in? Mrs. Ballinger, with a
+      vague purpose of gaining time, repeated slowly: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been so intensely
+      absorbed in&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby put down her liqueur glass and drew near the group with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Xingu?&rdquo; she gently prompted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thrill ran through the other members. They exchanged confused glances,
+      and then, with one accord, turned a gaze of mingled relief and
+      interrogation on their rescuer. The expression of each denoted a different
+      phase of the same emotion. Mrs. Plinth was the first to compose her
+      features to an air of reassurance: after a moment&rsquo;s hasty adjustment her
+      look almost implied that it was she who had given the word to Mrs.
+      Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Xingu, of course!&rdquo; exclaimed the latter with her accustomed promptness,
+      while Miss Van Vluyck and Laura Glyde seemed to be plumbing the depths of
+      memory, and Mrs. Leveret, feeling apprehensively for Appropriate
+      Allusions, was somehow reassured by the uncomfortable pressure of its bulk
+      against her person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane&rsquo;s change of countenance was no less striking than that of her
+      entertainers. She too put down her coffee-cup, but with a look of distinct
+      annoyance; she too wore, for a brief moment, what Mrs. Roby afterward
+      described as the look of feeling for something in the back of her head;
+      and before she could dissemble these momentary signs of weakness, Mrs.
+      Roby, turning to her with a deferential smile, had said: &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ve been
+      so hoping that to-day you would tell us just what you think of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane received the homage of the smile as a matter of course; but the
+      accompanying question obviously embarrassed her, and it became clear to
+      her observers that she was not quick at shifting her facial scenery. It
+      was as though her countenance had so long been set in an expression of
+      unchallenged superiority that the muscles had stiffened, and refused to
+      obey her orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Xingu&mdash;&rdquo; she said, as if seeking in her turn to gain time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby continued to press her. &ldquo;Knowing how engrossing the subject is,
+      you will understand how it happens that the club has let everything else
+      go to the wall for the moment. Since we took up Xingu I might almost say&mdash;were
+      it not for your books&mdash;that nothing else seems to us worth
+      remembering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane&rsquo;s stern features were darkened rather than lit up by an uneasy
+      smile. &ldquo;I am glad to hear that you make one exception,&rdquo; she gave out
+      between narrowed lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby said prettily; &ldquo;but as you have shown us that&mdash;so
+      very naturally!&mdash;you don&rsquo;t care to talk of your own things, we really
+      can&rsquo;t let you off from telling us exactly what you think about Xingu;
+      especially,&rdquo; she added, with a still more persuasive smile, &ldquo;as some
+      people say that one of your last books was saturated with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an <i>it</i>, then&mdash;the assurance sped like fire through the
+      parched minds of the other members. In their eagerness to gain the least
+      little clue to Xingu they almost forgot the joy of assisting at the
+      discomfiture of Mrs. Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter reddened nervously under her antagonist&rsquo;s challenge. &ldquo;May I
+      ask,&rdquo; she faltered out, &ldquo;to which of my books you refer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby did not falter. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just what I want you to tell us;
+      because, though I was present, I didn&rsquo;t actually take part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Present at what?&rdquo; Mrs. Dane took her up; and for an instant the trembling
+      members of the Lunch Club thought that the champion Providence had raised
+      up for them had lost a point. But Mrs. Roby explained herself gaily: &ldquo;At
+      the discussion, of course. And so we&rsquo;re dreadfully anxious to know just
+      how it was that you went into the Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a portentous pause, a silence so big with incalculable dangers
+      that the members with one accord checked the words on their lips, like
+      soldiers dropping their arms to watch a single combat between their
+      leaders. Then Mrs. Dane gave expression to their inmost dread by saying
+      sharply: &ldquo;Ah&mdash;you say <i>the</i> Xingu, do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby smiled undauntedly. &ldquo;It is a shade pedantic, isn&rsquo;t it?
+      Personally, I always drop the article; but I don&rsquo;t know how the other
+      members feel about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other members looked as though they would willingly have dispensed
+      with this appeal to their opinion, and Mrs. Roby, after a bright glance
+      about the group, went on: &ldquo;They probably think, as I do, that nothing
+      really matters except the thing itself&mdash;except Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No immediate reply seemed to occur to Mrs. Dane, and Mrs. Ballinger
+      gathered courage to say: &ldquo;Surely every one must feel that about Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth came to her support with a heavy murmur of assent, and Laura
+      Glyde sighed out emotionally: &ldquo;I have known cases where it has changed a
+      whole life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has done me worlds of good,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret interjected, seeming to
+      herself to remember that she had either taken it or read it the winter
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby admitted, &ldquo;the difficulty is that one must give up
+      so much time to it. It&rsquo;s very long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t imagine,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, &ldquo;grudging the time given to such
+      a subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And deep in places,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby pursued; (so then it was a book!) &ldquo;And it
+      isn&rsquo;t easy to skip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never skip,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth dogmatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, it&rsquo;s dangerous to, in Xingu. Even at the start there are places where
+      one can&rsquo;t. One must just wade through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should hardly call it <i>wading</i>,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger
+      sarcastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby sent her a look of interest. &ldquo;Ah&mdash;you always found it went
+      swimmingly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger hesitated. &ldquo;Of course there are difficult passages,&rdquo; she
+      conceded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; some are not at all clear&mdash;even,&rdquo; Mrs. Roby added, &ldquo;if one is
+      familiar with the original.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I suppose you are?&rdquo; Osric Dane interposed, suddenly fixing her with a
+      look of challenge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby met it by a deprecating gesture. &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s really not difficult
+      up to a certain point; though some of the branches are very little known,
+      and it&rsquo;s almost impossible to get at the source.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you ever tried?&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth enquired, still distrustful of Mrs.
+      Roby&rsquo;s thoroughness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Roby was silent for a moment; then she replied with lowered lids: &ldquo;No&mdash;but
+      a friend of mine did; a very brilliant man; and he told me it was best for
+      women&mdash;not to....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A shudder ran around the room. Mrs. Leveret coughed so that the
+      parlour-maid, who was handing the cigarettes, should not hear; Miss Van
+      Vluyck&rsquo;s face took on a nauseated expression, and Mrs. Plinth looked as if
+      she were passing some one she did not care to bow to. But the most
+      remarkable result of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s words was the effect they produced on the
+      Lunch Club&rsquo;s distinguished guest. Osric Dane&rsquo;s impassive features suddenly
+      softened to an expression of the warmest human sympathy, and edging her
+      chair toward Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s she asked: &ldquo;Did he really? And&mdash;did you find
+      he was right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger, in whom annoyance at Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s unwonted assumption of
+      prominence was beginning to displace gratitude for the aid she had
+      rendered, could not consent to her being allowed, by such dubious means,
+      to monopolise the attention of their guest. If Osric Dane had not enough
+      self-respect to resent Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s flippancy, at least the Lunch Club
+      would do so in the person of its President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger laid her hand on Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;We must not forget,&rdquo; she
+      said with a frigid amiability, &ldquo;that absorbing as Xingu is to <i>us</i>,
+      it may be less interesting to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, on the contrary, I assure you,&rdquo; Osric Dane intervened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;to others,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger finished firmly; &ldquo;and we must not allow
+      our little meeting to end without persuading Mrs. Dane to say a few words
+      to us on a subject which, to-day, is much more present in all our
+      thoughts. I refer, of course, to &lsquo;The Wings of Death.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other members, animated by various degrees of the same sentiment, and
+      encouraged by the humanised mien of their redoubtable guest, repeated
+      after Mrs. Ballinger: &ldquo;Oh, yes, you really <i>must</i> talk to us a little
+      about your book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Osric Dane&rsquo;s expression became as bored, though not as haughty, as when
+      her work had been previously mentioned. But before she could respond to
+      Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s request, Mrs. Roby had risen from her seat, and was
+      pulling down her veil over her frivolous nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so sorry,&rdquo; she said, advancing toward her hostess with outstretched
+      hand, &ldquo;but before Mrs. Dane begins I think I&rsquo;d better run away. Unluckily,
+      as you know, I haven&rsquo;t read her books, so I should be at a terrible
+      disadvantage among you all, and besides, I&rsquo;ve an engagement to play
+      bridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If Mrs. Roby had simply pleaded her ignorance of Osric Dane&rsquo;s works as a
+      reason for withdrawing, the Lunch Club, in view of her recent prowess,
+      might have approved such evidence of discretion; but to couple this excuse
+      with the brazen announcement that she was foregoing the privilege for the
+      purpose of joining a bridge-party was only one more instance of her
+      deplorable lack of discrimination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies were disposed, however, to feel that her departure&mdash;now
+      that she had performed the sole service she was ever likely to render them&mdash;would
+      probably make for greater order and dignity in the impending discussion,
+      besides relieving them of the sense of self-distrust which her presence
+      always mysteriously produced. Mrs. Ballinger therefore restricted herself
+      to a formal murmur of regret, and the other members were just grouping
+      themselves comfortably about Osric Dane when the latter, to their dismay,
+      started up from the sofa on which she had been seated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh wait&mdash;do wait, and I&rsquo;ll go with you!&rdquo; she called out to Mrs.
+      Roby; and, seizing the hands of the disconcerted members, she administered
+      a series of farewell pressures with the mechanical haste of a
+      railway-conductor punching tickets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so sorry&mdash;I&rsquo;d quite forgotten&mdash;&rdquo; she flung back at them
+      from the threshold; and as she joined Mrs. Roby, who had turned in
+      surprise at her appeal, the other ladies had the mortification of hearing
+      her say, in a voice which she did not take the pains to lower: &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ll
+      let me walk a little way with you, I should so like to ask you a few more
+      questions about Xingu....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The incident had been so rapid that the door closed on the departing pair
+      before the other members had time to understand what was happening. Then a
+      sense of the indignity put upon them by Osric Dane&rsquo;s unceremonious
+      desertion began to contend with the confused feeling that they had been
+      cheated out of their due without exactly knowing how or why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence, during which Mrs. Ballinger, with a perfunctory hand,
+      rearranged the skilfully grouped literature at which her distinguished
+      guest had not so much as glanced; then Miss Van Vluyck tartly pronounced:
+      &ldquo;Well, I can&rsquo;t say that I consider Osric Dane&rsquo;s departure a great loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This confession crystallised the resentment of the other members, and Mrs.
+      Leveret exclaimed: &ldquo;I do believe she came on purpose to be nasty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s private opinion that Osric Dane&rsquo;s attitude toward the
+      Lunch Club might have been very different had it welcomed her in the
+      majestic setting of the Plinth drawing-rooms; but not liking to reflect on
+      the inadequacy of Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s establishment she sought a roundabout
+      satisfaction in depreciating her lack of foresight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said from the first that we ought to have had a subject ready. It&rsquo;s
+      what always happens when you&rsquo;re unprepared. Now if we&rsquo;d only got up Xingu&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slowness of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s mental processes was always allowed for by
+      the club; but this instance of it was too much for Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s
+      equanimity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Xingu!&rdquo; she scoffed. &ldquo;Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more
+      about it than she did&mdash;unprepared though we were&mdash;that made
+      Osric Dane so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to
+      everybody!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This retort impressed even Mrs. Plinth, and Laura Glyde, moved by an
+      impulse of generosity, said: &ldquo;Yes, we really ought to be grateful to Mrs.
+      Roby for introducing the topic. It may have made Osric Dane furious, but
+      at least it made her civil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad we were able to show her,&rdquo; added Miss Van Vluyck, &ldquo;that a broad
+      and up-to-date culture is not confined to the great intellectual centres.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This increased the satisfaction of the other members, and they began to
+      forget their wrath against Osric Dane in the pleasure of having
+      contributed to her discomfiture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck thoughtfully rubbed her spectacles. &ldquo;What surprised me
+      most,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;was that Fanny Roby should be so up on Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark threw a slight chill on the company, but Mrs. Ballinger said
+      with an air of indulgent irony: &ldquo;Mrs. Roby always has the knack of making
+      a little go a long way; still, we certainly owe her a debt for happening
+      to remember that she&rsquo;d heard of Xingu.&rdquo; And this was felt by the other
+      members to be a graceful way of cancelling once for all the club&rsquo;s
+      obligation to Mrs. Roby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Mrs. Leveret took courage to speed a timid shaft of irony. &ldquo;I fancy
+      Osric Dane hardly expected to take a lesson in Xingu at Hillbridge!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger smiled. &ldquo;When she asked me what we represented&mdash;do you
+      remember?&mdash;I wish I&rsquo;d simply said we represented Xingu!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the ladies laughed appreciatively at this sally, except Mrs. Plinth,
+      who said, after a moment&rsquo;s deliberation: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure it would have been
+      wise to do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger, who was already beginning to feel as if she had launched
+      at Osric Dane the retort which had just occurred to her, turned ironically
+      on Mrs. Plinth. &ldquo;May I ask why?&rdquo; she enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth looked grave. &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I understood from Mrs. Roby
+      herself that the subject was one it was as well not to go into too
+      deeply?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck rejoined with precision: &ldquo;I think that applied only to an
+      investigation of the origin of the&mdash;of the&mdash;&ldquo;; and suddenly she
+      found that her usually accurate memory had failed her. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a part of the
+      subject I never studied myself/,&rdquo; she concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laura Glyde bent toward them with widened eyes. &ldquo;And yet it seems&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t
+      it?&mdash;the part that is fullest of an esoteric fascination?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know on what you base that,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck
+      argumentatively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, didn&rsquo;t you notice how intensely interested Osric Dane became as
+      soon as she heard what the brilliant foreigner&mdash;he <i>was</i> a
+      foreigner, wasn&rsquo;t he?&mdash;had told Mrs. Roby about the origin&mdash;the
+      origin of the rite&mdash;or whatever you call it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth looked disapproving, and Mrs. Ballinger visibly wavered. Then
+      she said: &ldquo;It may not be desirable to touch on the&mdash;on that part of
+      the subject in general conversation; but, from the importance it evidently
+      has to a woman of Osric Dane&rsquo;s distinction, I feel as if we ought not to
+      be afraid to discuss it among ourselves&mdash;without gloves&mdash;though
+      with closed doors, if necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite of your opinion,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck came briskly to her support;
+      &ldquo;on condition, that is, that all grossness of language is avoided.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;m sure we shall understand without that,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret tittered;
+      and Laura Glyde added significantly: &ldquo;I fancy we can read between the
+      lines,&rdquo; while Mrs. Ballinger rose to assure herself that the doors were
+      really closed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth had not yet given her adhesion. &ldquo;I hardly see,&rdquo; she began,
+      &ldquo;what benefit is to be derived from investigating such peculiar customs&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s patience had reached the extreme limit of tension.
+      &ldquo;This at least,&rdquo; she returned; &ldquo;that we shall not be placed again in the
+      humiliating position of finding ourselves less up on our own subjects than
+      Fanny Roby!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even to Mrs. Plinth this argument was conclusive. She peered furtively
+      about the room and lowered her commanding tones to ask: &ldquo;Have you got a
+      copy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A&mdash;a copy?&rdquo; stammered Mrs. Ballinger. She was aware that the other
+      members were looking at her expectantly, and that this answer was
+      inadequate, so she supported it by asking another question. &ldquo;A copy of
+      what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her companions bent their expectant gaze on Mrs. Plinth, who, in turn,
+      appeared less sure of herself than usual. &ldquo;Why, of&mdash;of&mdash;the
+      book,&rdquo; she explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What book?&rdquo; snapped Miss Van Vluyck, almost as sharply as Osric Dane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger looked at Laura Glyde, whose eyes were interrogatively
+      fixed on Mrs. Leveret. The fact of being deferred to was so new to the
+      latter that it filled her with an insane temerity. &ldquo;Why, Xingu, of
+      course!&rdquo; she exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A profound silence followed this challenge to the resources of Mrs.
+      Ballinger&rsquo;s library, and the latter, after glancing nervously toward the
+      Books of the Day, returned with dignity: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a thing one cares to
+      leave about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think not!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Plinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It <i>is</i> a book, then?&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This again threw the company into disarray, and Mrs. Ballinger, with an
+      impatient sigh, rejoined: &ldquo;Why&mdash;there <i>is</i> a book&mdash;naturally....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why did Miss Glyde call it a religion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Laura Glyde started up. &ldquo;A religion? I never&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you did,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck insisted; &ldquo;you spoke of rites; and Mrs.
+      Plinth said it was a custom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Glyde was evidently making a desperate effort to recall her
+      statement; but accuracy of detail was not her strongest point. At length
+      she began in a deep murmur: &ldquo;Surely they used to do something of the kind
+      at the Eleusinian mysteries&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&mdash;&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, on the verge of disapproval; and Mrs.
+      Plinth protested: &ldquo;I understood there was to be no indelicacy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger could not control her irritation. &ldquo;Really, it is too bad
+      that we should not be able to talk the matter over quietly among
+      ourselves. Personally, I think that if one goes into Xingu at all&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, so do I!&rdquo; cried Miss Glyde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I don&rsquo;t see how one can avoid doing so, if one wishes to keep up with
+      the Thought of the Day&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret uttered an exclamation of relief. &ldquo;There&mdash;that&rsquo;s it!&rdquo;
+       she interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s it?&rdquo; the President took her up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why&mdash;it&rsquo;s a&mdash;a Thought: I mean a philosophy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This seemed to bring a certain relief to Mrs. Ballinger and Laura Glyde,
+      but Miss Van Vluyck said: &ldquo;Excuse me if I tell you that you&rsquo;re all
+      mistaken. Xingu happens to be a language.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A language!&rdquo; the Lunch Club cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly. Don&rsquo;t you remember Fanny Roby&rsquo;s saying that there were several
+      branches, and that some were hard to trace? What could that apply to but
+      dialects?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger could no longer restrain a contemptuous laugh. &ldquo;Really, if
+      the Lunch Club has reached such a pass that it has to go to Fanny Roby for
+      instruction on a subject like Xingu, it had almost better cease to exist!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really her fault for not being clearer,&rdquo; Laura Glyde put in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, clearness and Fanny Roby!&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger shrugged. &ldquo;I daresay we
+      shall find she was mistaken on almost every point.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not look it up?&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a rule this recurrent suggestion of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s was ignored in the
+      heat of discussion, and only resorted to afterward in the privacy of each
+      member&rsquo;s home. But on the present occasion the desire to ascribe their own
+      confusion of thought to the vague and contradictory nature of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s
+      statements caused the members of the Lunch Club to utter a collective
+      demand for a book of reference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point the production of her treasured volume gave Mrs. Leveret,
+      for a moment, the unusual experience of occupying the centre front; but
+      she was not able to hold it long, for Appropriate Allusions contained no
+      mention of Xingu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s not the kind of thing we want!&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Van Vluyck. She
+      cast a disparaging glance over Mrs. Ballinger&rsquo;s assortment of literature,
+      and added impatiently: &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you any useful books?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I have,&rdquo; replied Mrs. Ballinger indignantly; &ldquo;I keep them in my
+      husband&rsquo;s dressing-room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From this region, after some difficulty and delay, the parlour-maid
+      produced the W-Z volume of an Encyclopaedia and, in deference to the fact
+      that the demand for it had come from Miss Van Vluyck, laid the ponderous
+      tome before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment of painful suspense while Miss Van Vluyck rubbed her
+      spectacles, adjusted them, and turned to Z; and a murmur of surprise when
+      she said: &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose,&rdquo; said Mrs. Plinth, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not fit to be put in a book of
+      reference.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, nonsense!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Ballinger. &ldquo;Try X.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck turned back through the volume, peering short-sightedly up
+      and down the pages, till she came to a stop and remained motionless, like
+      a dog on a point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, have you found it?&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger enquired after a considerable
+      delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I&rsquo;ve found it,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck in a queer voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth hastily interposed: &ldquo;I beg you won&rsquo;t read it aloud if there&rsquo;s
+      anything offensive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck, without answering, continued her silent scrutiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what <i>is</i> it?&rdquo; exclaimed Laura Glyde excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Do</i> tell us!&rdquo; urged Mrs. Leveret, feeling that she would have
+      something awful to tell her sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck pushed the volume aside and turned slowly toward the
+      expectant group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a river.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A <i>river?</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes: in Brazil. Isn&rsquo;t that where she&rsquo;s been living?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? Fanny Roby? Oh, but you must be mistaken. You&rsquo;ve been reading the
+      wrong thing,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger exclaimed, leaning over her to seize the
+      volume.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only Xingu in the Encyclopaedia; and she <i>has</i> been living
+      in Brazil,&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck persisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes: her brother has a consulship there,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s too ridiculous! I&mdash;we&mdash;why we <i>all</i> remember
+      studying Xingu last year&mdash;or the year before last,&rdquo; Mrs. Ballinger
+      stammered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought I did when <i>you</i> said so,&rdquo; Laura Glyde avowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said so?&rdquo; cried Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. You said it had crowded everything else out of your mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well <i>you</i> said it had changed your whole life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For that matter. Miss Van Vluyck said she had never grudged the time
+      she&rsquo;d given it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth interposed: &ldquo;I made it clear that I knew nothing whatever of
+      the original.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger broke off the dispute with a groan. &ldquo;Oh, what does it all
+      matter if she&rsquo;s been making fools of us? I believe Miss Van Vluyck&rsquo;s right&mdash;she
+      was talking of the river all the while!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could she? It&rsquo;s too preposterous,&rdquo; Miss Glyde exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen.&rdquo; Miss Van Vluyck had repossessed herself of the Encyclopaedia,
+      and restored her spectacles to a nose reddened by excitement. &ldquo;&lsquo;The Xingu,
+      one of the principal rivers of Brazil, rises on the plateau of Mato
+      Grosso, and flows in a northerly direction for a length of no less than
+      one thousand one hundred and eighteen miles, entering the Amazon near the
+      mouth of the latter river. The upper course of the Xingu is auriferous and
+      fed by numerous branches. Its source was first discovered in 1884 by the
+      German explorer von den Steinen, after a difficult and dangerous
+      expedition through a region inhabited by tribes still in the Stone Age of
+      culture.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies received this communication in a state of stupefied silence
+      from which Mrs. Leveret was the first to rally. &ldquo;She certainly <i>did</i>
+      speak of its having branches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The word seemed to snap the last thread of their incredulity. &ldquo;And of its
+      great length,&rdquo; gasped Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She said it was awfully deep, and you couldn&rsquo;t skip&mdash;you just had to
+      wade through,&rdquo; Miss Glyde added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea worked its way more slowly through Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s compact
+      resistances. &ldquo;How could there be anything improper about a river?&rdquo; she
+      enquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Improper?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what she said about the source&mdash;that it was corrupt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not corrupt, but hard to get at,&rdquo; Laura Glyde corrected. &ldquo;Some one who&rsquo;d
+      been there had told her so. I daresay it was the explorer himself&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t
+      it say the expedition was dangerous?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Difficult and dangerous,&rsquo;&rdquo; read Miss Van Vluyck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ballinger pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      nothing she said that wouldn&rsquo;t apply to a river&mdash;to this river!&rdquo; She
+      swung about excitedly to the other members. &ldquo;Why, do you remember her
+      telling us that she hadn&rsquo;t read &lsquo;The Supreme Instant&rsquo; because she&rsquo;d taken
+      it on a boating party while she was staying with her brother, and some one
+      had &lsquo;shied&rsquo; it overboard&mdash;&lsquo;shied&rsquo; of course was her own expression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies breathlessly signified that the expression had not escaped
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;and then didn&rsquo;t she tell Osric Dane that one of her books was
+      simply saturated with Xingu? Of course it was, if one of Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s rowdy
+      friends had thrown it into the river!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This surprising reconstruction of the scene in which they had just
+      participated left the members of the Lunch Club inarticulate. At length,
+      Mrs. Plinth, after visibly labouring with the problem, said in a heavy
+      tone: &ldquo;Osric Dane was taken in too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret took courage at this. &ldquo;Perhaps that&rsquo;s what Mrs. Roby did it
+      for. She said Osric Dane was a brute, and she may have wanted to give her
+      a lesson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck frowned. &ldquo;It was hardly worth while to do it at our
+      expense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least,&rdquo; said Miss Glyde with a touch of bitterness, &ldquo;she succeeded in
+      interesting her, which was more than we did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What chance had we?&rdquo; rejoined Mrs. Ballinger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Roby monopolised her from the first. And <i>that</i>, I&rsquo;ve no doubt,
+      was her purpose&mdash;to give Osric Dane a false impression of her own
+      standing in the club. She would hesitate at nothing to attract attention:
+      we all know how she took in poor Professor Foreland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She actually makes him give bridge-teas every Thursday,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret
+      piped up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laura Glyde struck her hands together. &ldquo;Why, this is Thursday, and it&rsquo;s <i>there</i>
+      she&rsquo;s gone, of course; and taken Osric with her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they&rsquo;re shrieking over us at this moment,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger
+      between her teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This possibility seemed too preposterous to be admitted. &ldquo;She would hardly
+      dare,&rdquo; said Miss Van Vluyck, &ldquo;confess the imposture to Osric Dane.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not so sure: I thought I saw her make a sign as she left. If she
+      hadn&rsquo;t made a sign, why should Osric Dane have rushed out after her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you know, we&rsquo;d all been telling her how wonderful Xingu was, and
+      she said she wanted to find out more about it,&rdquo; Mrs. Leveret said, with a
+      tardy impulse of justice to the absent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reminder, far from mitigating the wrath of the other members, gave it
+      a stronger impetus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;and that&rsquo;s exactly what they&rsquo;re both laughing over now,&rdquo; said
+      Laura Glyde ironically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Plinth stood up and gathered her expensive furs about her monumental
+      form. &ldquo;I have no wish to criticise,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but unless the Lunch Club
+      can protect its members against the recurrence of such&mdash;such
+      unbecoming scenes, I for one&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, so do I!&rdquo; agreed Miss Glyde, rising also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Van Vluyck closed the Encyclopaedia and proceeded to button herself
+      into her jacket &ldquo;My time is really too valuable&mdash;&rdquo; she began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy we are all of one mind,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ballinger, looking searchingly
+      at Mrs. Leveret, who looked at the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always deprecate anything like a scandal&mdash;&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has been the cause of one to-day!&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Glyde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leveret moaned: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see how she <i>could!</i>&rdquo; and Miss Van
+      Vluyck said, picking up her note-book: &ldquo;Some women stop at nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;but if,&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth took up her argument impressively, &ldquo;anything
+      of the kind had happened in <i>my</i> house&rdquo; (it never would have, her
+      tone implied), &ldquo;I should have felt that I owed it to myself either to ask
+      for Mrs. Roby&rsquo;s resignation&mdash;or to offer mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mrs. Plinth&mdash;&rdquo; gasped the Lunch Club.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fortunately for me,&rdquo; Mrs. Plinth continued with an awful magnanimity,
+      &ldquo;the matter was taken out of my hands by our President&rsquo;s decision that the
+      right to entertain distinguished guests was a privilege vested in her
+      office; and I think the other members will agree that, as she was alone in
+      this opinion, she ought to be alone in deciding on the best way of
+      effacing its&mdash;its really deplorable consequences.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A deep silence followed this outbreak of Mrs. Plinth&rsquo;s long-stored
+      resentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see why I should be expected to ask her to resign&mdash;&rdquo; Mrs.
+      Ballinger at length began; but Laura Glyde turned back to remind her: &ldquo;You
+      know she made you say that you&rsquo;d got on swimmingly in Xingu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An ill-timed giggle escaped from Mrs. Leveret, and Mrs. Ballinger
+      energetically continued &ldquo;&mdash;but you needn&rsquo;t think for a moment that
+      I&rsquo;m afraid to!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door of the drawing-room closed on the retreating backs of the Lunch
+      Club, and the President of that distinguished association, seating herself
+      at her writing-table, and pushing away a copy of &ldquo;The Wings of Death&rdquo; to
+      make room for her elbow, drew forth a sheet of the club&rsquo;s note-paper, on
+      which she began to write: &ldquo;My dear Mrs. Roby&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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