For all his intensity he loved economically. After moving to a new city he spent several months neither looking nor wanting, until one day when he was settled in and used to the changes in his routine he went to a party, met a woman, and fell in love with her. He had only a little charm, but because he realized this he used it to great effect when it was needed. Also since he believed he deserved no one he could ask for all things with equal shame and candor.

Words that denote more than one thing do not speak thus by accident. The relevant word here, in English–which has many types of desire and few of love–is want, which of course is both a desire and a need. But what ties these two limbs together, one seeming voluntary and one not, is that want is always conscious of itself. It is impossible to want a bananna without being conscious of the desire; likewise what differs want from need is that want feels an acute lack of the thing needed, knows the shape of the vacancy, if not always how to fill it. With his precision of language he told her, much too soon to be conventionally acceptable, that he wanted her.

The woman he found was short, had black hair, and a small expressive face.