Book excerpt: Originally published in 1949, this book tells the story of a Southern white girl and her reaction when she discovers that her unborn child will inherit Negro blood. Bentley Carr grew up without knowing she was a very pretty girl. Daughter of a seamstress in a Mississippi town, she felt overwhelmed when she became the bride of Philip Churston of Cedar Bluff plantation. She was happy when she knew she was to bear him a child. Happy—until she discovered why the whisper ran about the Churstons: a strain of Negro blood in the family! That was why Philip was cold to the coming heir; why there were never any visitors at Cedar Bluff. Her dilemma faced her starkly: must she, too, learn to live a lie? “Grace in the writing, warm appreciation of the emotional involvements, and of the relationship between background and action....”—W. K. Rugg, Christian Science Monitor