“The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner The country is India. A colonial official and his wife are giving a large dinner party. The
guests are army officers, and government attache´s with their wives, and a visiting American
naturalist. The dining room is spacious. It has a bare marble floor, open rafters, and wide glass
doors opening onto a veranda.*
A spirited discussion springs up between a young girl and a colonel. She insists that women
have outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era, but the colonel says that they
haven’t.
“A woman’s unfailing reaction in any crisis,” the colonel says, “is to scream.
The American does not join in the argument but 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, she summons the native boy standing behind
her chair and whispers to him. The boy’s eyes widen, and he quickly leaves the room.
Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the boy place a 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—bait for
a snake. He realizes there must be a cobra in the 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 only one 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 his voice so arresting that it sobers
everyone.
“I want to know just what control everyone at this table has. I will count to three hundred —
that’s five minutes —and not one of you is to move a muscle. Those who move will forfeit fifty
rupees. Ready!”
The twenty people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying “two hundred and
eighty” when he sees the cobra. It emerges and crawls to the bowl of milk. Screams ring out as he
jumps to slam the veranda doors safely shut.
“You were right, Colonel!” the host exclaims. “A man has just shown us an example of
perfect control.”
“Just a minute,” the American says, turning to his hostess. “Mrs. Wynnes, how did you know
the cobra was in the room?”
A faint smile lights up the woman’s face as she replies. “Because it was crawling across my
foot.”
*During the time this story takes place, India was a British colony. The colonial official
works for the British government in India. The government attachés work for another country’s7
embassy in India.
Finally, a naturalist is someone who studies animals and plants.
1. Who are the characters of the story?
2. Where and when did the events take place?
3. What was the room like?
4. Why did the American have everyone play at sitting still without telling them why?
5. During the dinner party what did make cobra come out?
6. How did Mrs. Wynnes know that a cobra was in the room?
