But she knew there had been some, and she knew that if she kept them on, there would be more, an endless future stream of the vulnerable and the ordinary meeting Patrick’s sneer and Karl’s contempt at the worst moments of their days.

To keep them was to sacrifice all of those future guests, all of those future families, to spare these two men the consequences of who they had shown themselves to be.

Clara chose the future guests.

She chose the countless tired strangers who would now be met, at her front desk, by someone who did not sort human beings by their clothing.

Karl asked her to think of his family, and she did think of families, all of them, the ones his contempt had already wounded and the ones it would have wounded next, and she decided they mattered more than his comfort.