Xingu (Or The Lunch Club): Chapter Five (final)

In this short novella by Edith Wharton, we are treated to a hilarious vignette of a New York ladies' Lunch Club in the early 1920s. In the fifth and final chapter, the ladies finally discover from Mrs Ballinger's Encyclopedia (volume W-Z) what Xingu really is. The discovery leads to a shocked silence, then an outbreak.

Thank you for listening all the way through! If you've enjoyed Edith Wharton's writing, 'His Father's Son' is also available on Premium Tracks.

Transcript

Hello there,

It's Mandy here.

Welcome back to Jingoo by Edith Wharton and we've reached the final part,

Part five.

Wharton wrote prolifically all through her life and the novel she's best known for and which she wrote in her late fifties is The Age of Innocence.

With this novel she won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for fiction which made her the first woman to win that award.

She was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927,

1928 and 1930.

She died in June 1937.

So before I read the final chapter,

Please go ahead and make yourself really comfortable.

Settle down into your chair or your bed,

Relax your hands,

Loosen your shoulders and release your jaw.

That's great,

So if you're ready then I shall begin.

From Mrs Ballinger's husband's dressing room,

After some difficulty and delay,

The parlour maid produced the W to Z volume of an encyclopaedia and,

In deference to the fact that the demand for it had come from Miss Van Vleuk,

Laid the ponderous tome before her.

There was a moment of painful suspense while Miss Van Vleuk 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 Vleuk turned back through the volume,

Peering short-sightedly up and down the pages until 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 found it,

Said Miss Van Vleuk in a strange voice.

Mrs Plinth hastily interposed.

I beg you won't read it aloud if there's anything offensive.

Miss Van Vleuk,

Without answering,

Continued her silent scrutiny.

Well,

What is it?

Exclaimed Laura Glide excitedly.

Do tell us,

Urged Mrs Leverett,

Feeling that she would have something awful to tell her sister.

Miss Van Vleuk pushed the volume aside and turned slowly towards 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 Jingu in the encyclopedia and she has been living in Brazil,

Miss Van Vleuk persisted.

Yes,

Her brother was a consul ship there,

Mrs Leverett interposed.

But it's too ridiculous.

Why,

We all remember studying Jingu last year or the year before last,

Mrs Ballinger stammered.

I thought I did when you said so,

Laura Glider vowed.

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 Vleuk 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 Vleuk's right.

She was talking of the river all the while.

How could she?

It's too preposterous,

Miss Glide exclaimed.

Listen,

Miss Van Vleuk had repossessed herself of the encyclopedia and restored her spectacles to a nose reddened by excitement.

The Jingu,

One of the principal rivers of Brazil,

Rises on the of Mato Grosso and flows in a northerly direction for a length of no less than 1,

118 miles,

Entering the Amazon near the mouth of the latter river.

The upper course of the Jingu is oriferous 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 Leverett was the first to rally.

She certainly did speak of it 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 Glide added.

The idea worked its way more slowly through Mrs Plinth's compact resistances.

How could there be anything improper about a river,

She inquired.

Improper?

Why,

What she said about the source,

That it was corrupt.

Not corrupt but hard to get at,

Laura Glide corrected.

Someone who'd been there had told her so.

I dare say it was the explorer himself.

Doesn't it say the expedition was dangerous?

Difficult and dangerous,

Read Miss Van Vloek.

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 someone had shied it overboard.

Shied,

Of course,

Was her own expression.

The ladies breathlessly signified that that expression had not escaped them.

Well,

And then didn't she tell Osric Dane that one of her books was simply saturated with gingoo?

Of course it was,

If one of Mrs Robie'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 Leverett took courage at this.

Perhaps that's what Mrs Robie did it for.

She said Osric Dane was a brute and she may have wanted to give her a lesson.

Miss Van Vloek frowned.

It was hardly worthwhile to do it at our expense.

At least,

Said Miss Glide,

With a touch of bitterness,

She succeeded in interesting her,

Which was more than we did.

What chance had we,

Rejoined Mrs Ballinger.

Mrs Robie 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 Forland.

She actually makes him give bridge teas every Thursday,

Mrs Leverett piped up.

Laura Glide 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 Vloek,

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 Jingoo was,

And she said she wanted to find out more about it,

Mrs Leverett 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 Glide,

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 Glide,

Rising also.

Miss Van Vloek 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 Leverett,

Who looked at the others.

I always deprecate anything like a scandal,

Mrs Plinth continued.

She has been the cause of one today,

Exclaimed Miss Glide.

Mrs Leverett moaned,

I just don't see how she could,

And Miss Van Vloek said,

Picking up her notebook,

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 Robie'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 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 Glide turned back to remind her,

You know she made you say that you'd got on swimmingly in Jingu.

An ill-timed giggle escaped from Mrs Leverett,

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 notepaper on which she began to write,

My dear Mrs Robey.

The end.

Reviews

I know I wrote a comment after chapter 3..but finally listened to the rest of this delightful story . Thanks Mandy. This was such fun. I so enjoy the books set in the Gilded Age and Victorian Era and how the mores in the upper crust US paralleled those in the Victorian Era in Britain. What a time to live. I can’t imagine…so many social rules! I would second the other reviewers request for House of mirth. What a writer!!!!

Well, I have to say this story was a bit strange and a bit silly, but I enjoyed listening all the same. Thanks, Mandy. PS: and it took me numerous attempts to stay awake all the way through! 😴💤

Really enjoyed this one as well as The Age of Innocence. My other two favorites are The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country. Would love you to read The House of Mirth to us. Any chance? Thanks Mandy

Thank you for the exposing the story to us. Interesting short and yet so much meaning. I for one will listen again. She is Susa clever writer. Big thanks your way.🐕😊🕊️