Sentence:  They gathered under the giant chandelier, elegant little women with scraped-back hair, feet in the turned-out position, arms in the first or, for those with handbags, in the third, and one or two "sur le cou-de-pied", for all the world as if they were <WSD>rhubarbing</WSD> in a crowd scene twenty-five years before. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Of an actor in a film, stage play, etc.: to repeat the word "rhubarb" to create the sound of indistinct conversation; "hence", to converse indistinctly, to mumble.