a having way

“A having way” names a quality the people around Clare Kendry associate with her success in obtaining the life and possessions she desires. First repeated as a judgment in old gossip, the phrase returns to Irene Redfield during their reunion, where it links speculation about how Clare acquired her advantages to Irene’s recognition of Clare’s forceful, assured manner.

Meaning in the Gossip

The phrase surfaces in recollections of stories the girls exchanged about Clare. They had heard that she was seen, dressed fashionably, in a hotel with white companions, and that she had driven through Lincoln Park in a chauffeur-driven Packard limousine with a wealthy white man. The rumors’ repeated details—her clothes, company, and display of wealth—made her apparent change in circumstances the subject of excited speculation.

Some girls resisted believing the reports or suggested Clare might have had a job; others insisted that the sightings were genuine. Their conclusion was that the circumstances could mean only one thing: Clare was not working as a servant, and the company and luxuries suggested another source of support. The phrase “having way with her” condenses that insinuation into a judgment about Clare herself. It also draws on the girls’ references to her parents, making their gossip a mixture of social suspicion, family stigma, and envy.

Irene’s Recognition

Years later, as Irene sits facing Clare, the phrase comes back to her: “A having way.” Irene acknowledges that, judging by Clare’s appearance and manner, she seems to have obtained at least some of the things she wanted. The recollection therefore shifts the phrase from the girls’ conjecture about Clare’s past to Irene’s immediate impression of the woman before her.

Irene sees Clare leaning back in a tall, carved chair with an air of assurance, as if she were arranged for and desired. There is, in Irene’s description, a trace of polite insolence that some women possess by nature and others acquire with wealth or importance. Yet Irene takes particular satisfaction in thinking that Clare’s manner did not come from passing herself off as white: she believes Clare had always possessed it. The phrase thus refers not only to material acquisition but to a quality of presence that Irene understands as predating Clare’s altered social position.

Characterization and Ambiguity

The expression does not settle whether Clare’s success should be read as ambition, charm, or social calculation. In the gossip, it serves as a knowing, morally charged explanation for the luxurious life the girls imagine she has secured. In Irene’s recollection, it becomes more intimate and ambivalent: Irene recognizes Clare’s ability to obtain what she wants, even as she remains fascinated by the woman whose choices she finds dangerous and abhorrent.

That double perspective gives the phrase its force. It carries the judgment of people who speculate about Clare from a distance, but also Irene’s close attention to Clare’s composure and allure. What begins as a euphemistic accusation becomes a compact description of Clare’s apparent power to claim both possessions and attention.