Anaphora

"Because however sympathetic they were, I could see that deep down they were relieved.  They were relieved things had turned out the way they had; that they were in a position to comfort Ruth, instead of being left behind in the wake of a dizzying boost to her hopes.  They were relieved they wouldn't have to face, more starkly than ever, the notion which fascinated and nagged and scared them: this notion of thiers that there were all kinds of possibilities open to us Hailsham students that weren't open to them." -  Never Let Me Go, page 165.

This quote is an example of the literary term called an anaphora.  The word relieved is repeated twice at the beginnings of two sentences.  The purpose of the anaphora is to show just how, literally, relieved Chrissie and Rodney were that everyone agreed that the woman in the office was not Ruth's possible.  As it is said in the quote, Chrissie and Rodney feel like Hailsham students have it better.  The reader has been able to see this throughout the entire time the two characters have been a part of the novel.  The anaphora shows how happy Chrissie and Rodney were to see things not work out for a Hailsham student for once.  I just think it was awful of the two to invite Ruth on this trip getting her hopes up for seeing her possible when they probably knew all along that the woman was not really her.  They were so caught up in wanting to find out how to get a defferal, inviting the three just because they were from Hailsham and they assumed that they would know how to get a deferral as if they had better opportunities than the rest, that they didn't really care about how Ruth would feel if the woman didn't look to be the person she was modeled after.