“Say it and find out.”
“Well, I do.”
He bent down and kissed her again. Then he clenched one of his fists and walked away. It would have to be told now ... or never.
“Let’s sit on the couch, Blanche, I want to talk to you,” he said.
After she had acquiesced they were silent for a full minute, while she looked at him and wondered at his nervous remoteness. Then he turned to her.
“I suppose you don’t know that I’m a negro,” he said.
She stared at him with an unbelieving frown on her face.
“A ... what?” she asked.
“A man of negro blood. My grandfather was white and he married a negress, and my mother married another white man. That’s the story.”
As she stared at him she felt too stunned for any single emotion.