THE WINDOW

" How I wish I could come with you! " she
cried. But she was withheld by something so
strong that she never even thought of asking
herself what it was. Of course it was impossible
for her to go with them. But she would have
liked to go, had it not been for the other thing,
and tickled by the absurdity of her thought (how
lucky to marry a man with a wash-leather bag for
his watch) she went with a smile on her lips into
the other room, where her husband sat reading.

19

Of course, she said to herself, coming into the
room, she had to come here to get something
she wanted. First she wanted to sit down in a
particular chair under a particular lamp. But she
wanted something more, though she did not know,
could not think what it was that she wanted. She
looked at her husband (taking up her stocking and
beginning to knit), and saw that he did not want
to be interrupted—that was clear. He was
reading something that moved him very much.
He was half smiling and then she knew he was
controlling his emotion. He was tossing the pages
over. He was acting it—perhaps he was thinking
himself the person in the book. She wondered
what book it was. Oh, it was one of old Sir

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