The Dynner Party

The Dinner Party
The country is India. A colonial oficial and his wife are giving a large dinner party. They are seated with their guests – army officers and government attachés and their wives,and a visiting American naturalist – in their spacious dining room, which has a bare marble floor, open rafters, and wide glass doors opening onto a veranda.
A spirited discussion springs up between ayoung girl who insists that women have out – grown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era and a colonel who says that they haven’t.
“A woman’s unfailing reaction in any crisis,” thecolonel says, “is to scream. And while a man may feel like it, he has that ounce more of nerve control tan a woman has. And that last ounce is what counts.”
The American does not join in the argumentbut watches the other guests. As he looks, he sees a strange expression come over the face of the hostess. She is staring straight ahead, her muscles contracting slightly. With a slight gesture shesummons the servant standing behind her chair and whispers to him. The servant’s eyes widen, and he quickly leaves the room
Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the servant placea bowl of milk on the veranda just outside the open doors.
The American comes to with a start. In India, milk in a bowl means only one thing – baig for a snake. He realizes there must be a cobra inthe room. He looks up at the rafters – the likeliest place – but they are bare. Three corners of the room are empty, and in the fourth the servants are waiting to serve the next course. There is onlyone place left – under the table.
His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others, but he knows the commotion would frighten the cobra into striking. He speaks quickly, the tone of this voiceso arresting that it sobers everyone
“I want to know just what control everyone at this table has. I will count three hundred – that’s five minutes – and not one of you is to move a muscle. Those...