Looking at "A Rose for Miss Emily" by William Faulker and
"Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton, your assessment in terms of a comparison is correct:
both Emily and Grace have harbored a secret for many years. (I don't know if I would
call Grace "deceitful;" if she had lied to her husband, perhaps this would be the case,
but we don't know.) "Passionate" and member of the upper class also apply to both women.
Additionally, both womn are not just secretive, but they harbor secrets that would
shock society at large. These are ways in which the two women are the
same.
In contrast, Emily and Grace come from very different
parts of the country. Emily is from the South and Grace is from the North. Miss Emily
forced Homer Baron to "stay with her" by killing him. It is possible that Grace could
have made things very difficult for Delphin in that she carried his child, but she
marries another man and remains silent, protecting both her child, Delphin and his
marriage, and herself, obviously.
Another difference
between the two is that except for the murder, Miss Emily has no problem defying
society. She lives alone—without a female chaperone—after her father dies, she goes out
in public with a man beneath her social station, and she adheres (or not) to local laws
as she sees fit. On the other hand, Grace is a good wife and mother. She has never
spoken of Delphin's parentage to her child, but harbors the secret of their time
together in a very sentimental way. (Rose seems sentimental about nothing; she's just
twisted.)
Finally, Rose never shares her secret, taking it
to her grave. However, when Mrs. Slade (Alida) reveals that she
wrote the letter that Grace thought Delphin had sent her, Grace finally reveals
her secret, almost in self-defense. As Mrs. Slade tries to hurt
Grace and rub her nose in the fact that she had her husband
(Delphin) for many years: Grace "trumps" Mrs. Slade's play by revealing that
she had Delphin's child.
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