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--”