Yes, he wanted her, he wanted her, and she was the only thing on God's earth, he told himself rhetorically, that he did want with the whole of his nature! Quickening his steps, he turned in the direction of the Capitol Square, which stretched, like the painted curtain of a theatre, across the end of the street.

A singular intuition, a presentiment, had come to him that if he could sustain this impulse, this tide of energy until he saw Patty, he should be cured--he should find freedom of spirit.

Only through love, he had discovered, could there be resurrection from this spiritual death of the last two or three years.

Only through some tremendous rush of desire could he overcome the partial paralysis of his will.

His instinct, he knew, was right, but would his resolution last until he had found Patty?
It was early afternoon, and the faintly tinted shadows, as smooth as silk, were falling straight across the bright green grass on the hillside.