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She said: “It’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it.”

No, Clare Kendry cared nothing for the race. She only belonged to it.

She came to them frequently after that. Always with a touching gladness that welled up and overflowed on all the Redfield household. Yet Irene could never be sure whether her comings were a joy or a vexation.

“Yes, I understand what you mean. Yet lots of people ‘pass’ all the time.” “Not on our side, Hugh. It’s easy for a Negro to ‘pass’ for white. But I don’t think it would be so simple for a white person to ‘pass’ for colored.”

Clare clapped her hand. “ Rene, suppose I come, too! It sounds terribly interesting and amusing. And I don’t see why I shouldn’t.” Irene, who was regarding her through narrowed eyelids, had the same thought that she had had two years ago on the roof of the Drayton, that Clare Kendry was just a shade too good-looking. Her tone was on the edge of irony as she said: “You mean because so many other white people go?”

In that second she saw that she could bear anything, but only if no one knew that she had anything to bear. It hurt. ot frightened her, but she could bear it.

It's easy fof a Negro to 'pass' for white. But I don't think it would be so simple fr a white person to 'pass' for coloured.

"I'm beginning to believe," she murmured, "that no one is ever completely happy, or free, or safe."

Негру легко притвориться белым. Но, думаю, белому будет не так уж просто сойти за цветного.

Боль, страх и горе оставляют на человеке след. Даже любовь — возвышенное и мучительное чувство — накладывает на лицо едва уловимый отпечаток.

— А ты когда-нибудь задумывалась , Клэр, — полюбопытствовала Айрин, — как много горя и настоящей жестокости творят во имя милосердия Господа? Причем всегда его самые ярые почитатели.