"The Dinner Party"
This story is something that all women will appreciate....
The country is India. A large dinner party is being given in an uo-counrty station by a colonial official and his wife. The guests are army officers and government attache's and their wives, and an American naturalist.
On one side of the table is a spirited discussion between a young girl and a colonel. The girl insists that women have long outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era, that they are not as fluttery as their grandmothers. The colonle says they are, explaining that women don't have the control that men do. All the other men agree. The American scientist does not join the argument, but sits watching the faces of the other guests. As he looks he sees and interesting change in the hostesses face. She is staring strait ahead, the muscles in her face contracting slightly. She then summons a servant boy. She whispers to him and the boys face whitens and he leaves the room. No one else sees this, nor when the boy puts out a bowl of milk on the porch outside the glass doors.
The American comes to with a start. In India a bowl of milk means only one thing. It's bait for a snake. He realizes that there is a cobra in the room.
He looks up at the rafters glances at all the corners. Nothing. That only leaves one more place. Under the table.
His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others. But he knows that a fast movment will scare it and it will strike. He speaks quickly the quality of his voice so arresting that it hushes everyone.
"I want to know just what control every one has at this table. I will count to five hundred--thats five minutes--and not one of you move a single muscle. The first person to move will forfeit 50 rupees!Now. Ready..Go!"
The twenty people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying...."two hundred and eighty.." when out of the corner of his eye, he sees the cobra leave from under the table. As soon as it gets outside he jumps up and slams the doors closed.
"You were certainly right Colonle!" says the host. "A man has just shown us real control."
"Just a minute," the American says, turing to his hostess, "there's one thing I don't understand. How did you know that the cobra was in the room?"
"Because," she said with a faint smile, "it was lying across my foot."
THE END
The country is India. A large dinner party is being given in an uo-counrty station by a colonial official and his wife. The guests are army officers and government attache's and their wives, and an American naturalist.
On one side of the table is a spirited discussion between a young girl and a colonel. The girl insists that women have long outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era, that they are not as fluttery as their grandmothers. The colonle says they are, explaining that women don't have the control that men do. All the other men agree. The American scientist does not join the argument, but sits watching the faces of the other guests. As he looks he sees and interesting change in the hostesses face. She is staring strait ahead, the muscles in her face contracting slightly. She then summons a servant boy. She whispers to him and the boys face whitens and he leaves the room. No one else sees this, nor when the boy puts out a bowl of milk on the porch outside the glass doors.
The American comes to with a start. In India a bowl of milk means only one thing. It's bait for a snake. He realizes that there is a cobra in the room.
He looks up at the rafters glances at all the corners. Nothing. That only leaves one more place. Under the table.
His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others. But he knows that a fast movment will scare it and it will strike. He speaks quickly the quality of his voice so arresting that it hushes everyone.
"I want to know just what control every one has at this table. I will count to five hundred--thats five minutes--and not one of you move a single muscle. The first person to move will forfeit 50 rupees!Now. Ready..Go!"
The twenty people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying...."two hundred and eighty.." when out of the corner of his eye, he sees the cobra leave from under the table. As soon as it gets outside he jumps up and slams the doors closed.
"You were certainly right Colonle!" says the host. "A man has just shown us real control."
"Just a minute," the American says, turing to his hostess, "there's one thing I don't understand. How did you know that the cobra was in the room?"
"Because," she said with a faint smile, "it was lying across my foot."
THE END
posted by All Us Poets at 12:18 PM
1 comments
