Extract from Love in Vain by Federigo Tozzi
And then the daughter of a railway worker's widow let it be known to him, through another woman he'd been friendly with since childhood, that she intended to woo him. This flattered his ego, but he rejected her offer. The girl was rather homely. "If I'm going to take a wife, I want her the way I want her!" And he waited, waited in desperation.