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diff --git a/24131.txt b/24131.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a96d0ef --- /dev/null +++ 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK XINGU *** + +***** This file should be named 24131.txt or 24131.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/1/3/24131/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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