Excellent Women by Barbara Pym Page B

skirt, striding through the jungle, fearlessly questioning natives who had never before seen a white woman. A kind of Mary Kingsley, but perhaps even more remarkable in that she was an anthropologist, the kind of thing a woman would not naturally be, especially in 1907. Perhaps she was among the elderly people in the basket chairs, she might even be the one knitting and dozing. … I was so absorbed in my speculations that I did not notice that Helena had stopped speaking, until I was aware of Everard Bone standing up in her place and saying, as far as I could judge, very much the same sort of thing that Helena had already said. He spoke exceptionally well, hardly consulting his notes at all, and once or twice a ripple of laughter ran through the audience as if he had made a joke. I took this opportunity of studying him dispassionately, wondering what it was that made Helena’s eyes sparkle when his name was mentioned. He was certainly very clever and handsome, too, in his own way, but there was no warmth or charm about his personality. I began imagining him as a clergyman and decided that he would make a good one. His rather forbidding manner would be useful to him. I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced.
    When Everard had finished, the President, who looked as if he too had been dozing, got up and made a kindly speech. ‘And now, I am sure there are many points you are eager to discuss, he went on, ‘who is—ah—going to start the ball rolling?’
    There was the usual embarrassed silence, nobody liking to be first. Some chairs scraped on the floor and a woman sitting along our row pushed past us and went out. She was carrying a string-bag, containing a newspaper-wrapped bundle from which a fish’s tail protruded. Helena smiled nervously. Everard took off his horn-rimmed spectacles and covered his eyes with his hand.
    ‘Ah, Dr. Apfelbaum—first in the field,’ said the President in a relieved voice and everybody sat back in their chairs and looked up expectantly. How dreadful it would have been, I thought, if nobody had wanted to ask a question.
    Dr. Apfelbaum was a stocky man of Teutonic appearance. What he said was quite unintelligible to me, both from its content and because of his very marked foreign accent, but Everard dealt with him very competently. Now that the ball was rolling, other speakers followed in quick succession. In fact, they were jumping up and down like Jacks-in-the-boxes, hardly waiting for each other to finish. It seemed that they had all ‘done’ some particular tribe or area and could furnish parallels or contradictions from their own experience.
    ‘I shall just let it flow over me,’ said Rocky, but this was not always possible. There was, at one point, a sharp exchange between Dr. Apfelbaum and a stout dark-haired woman, and an apparently irrelevant question from the old man in the purple muffler provoked hearty laughter.
    ‘No ceremonial devouring of human flesh?’ he repeated in a disappointed tone, and sat down, shaking his head and muttering.
    At last the meeting appeared to be at an end. Helena took Rocky away and began to introduce him to various people. I stood rather awkwardly by the door, wondering whether I ought to go home now or whether it would seem discourteous not to thank Helena and Everard for inviting me. The people round me seemed to have settled down into little groups, many of which were carrying on learned discussions.
    ‘Well, what did you think of it? I’m afraid you must have been very bored?’
    Everard Bone had broken away from a group of Americans and was standing by my side. I was grateful to him for rescuing me though I could think of no conversation beyond a polite murmur and was quite sure that he was wanting to get back to discussing his paper with people who were able to.
    ‘I think I must be going home now,’ I said. ‘Thank you very much for asking