The dinner party perspective writing

 

Summary: It takes place in India where a colonial official and his wife are giving a large dinner party with many important guests - including a visiting American naturalist - in their large dining room. The dining room was very nice looking and had  glass doors opening to a veranda. A debate springs between a young girl and a colonel on whether or not women have grown out of “jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era”.

The American naturalist doesn't engage, instead noticing a strange expression on the face of the hostess. She was staring straight ahead with tense muscles. She calls over the native boy behind her seat and whispers in his ear. The boy grows shocked at what she said and quickly leaves the room. When the boy returns with a bowl of milk and sets it out on the veranda. The American remembers that in India, a bowl of milk is used as bait for snakes, and realizes that there must be a snake somewhere. He looked around the room for any sight of it but could not see it before concluding it must be under the table.

Quickly and deadly serious, he dares everyone for 5 minutes to not move a muscle under the guise to learn what nerve control the guests have. 20 seconds pass when the cobra finally comes out from under the table towards the milk. Guests scream as he slammed the glass doors to the veranda shut. The host exclaims that the colonel was right and men have better nerve control before the American cuts him off. He asks the hostess how she knew there was a cobra, to which she smiled and replied: "Because it was crawling across my foot."