"

She was silent, looking into the fire.

"Unless I were really free," she added softly.

He could not see her face. But she looked very young sitting there
with her unbound hair and hands clasped childishly about her knees.

"You have wondered about me--in a psychological way--ever since you
came." She went on, her voice taking on a harsher note. "You have
been trying to 'place' me. Well, since you are curious I will tell
you what I am. When I was younger and we lived in towns I used to
wander off by myself down the main streets to gaze in the windows. I
never went into any of the stores. The things I wanted were inside
and for sale--but I could not buy them. I was just a window-gazer.
That's what I am still. Life is for sale somewhere. But I cannot buy
it."

The throb of her voice was like the beating of caged wings through
the quiet room.

"But--" began Spence, and then he paused. It wasn't at all easy to
know what to say. "You are mistaken," he went on finally. "Life
isn't for sale anywhere. Life is inside, not outside. And no one
ever really wants the things they see in other people's windows."

"I do," said Desire coldly.

She was certainty very young! Spence felt suddenly indulgent.