tch 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 coughe