To dissimulate and to keep up the dissimulation

[breathedout]

To dissimulate and keep up the dissimulation over a long period without ever flagging, through silences, through smiles, to appear to be an entirely different person—this relegates the trifling exaggerations of gossips to a quite inferior category. It is a task, as I’ve had occasion to notice ever since, which is only possible for the young…

—Colette, The pure and the impure

(Recording because extremely relevant to Irene in "The hour should be the evening and the season winter"