Embroidered Cushions for Her Husbands

She fetched her work basket and drew up an armchair to the green shaded student lamp. She uncovered a cushion she was embroidering for his sofa. But since other wives embroidered cushions for their husbands, she did not wish to emit this last link in her devotion. He said to himself, with a secret dismay, that he would always know the thoughts behind it. The fact of seeing other houses, roofs, chimneys, of getting a sense of other lives outside his own, other cities beyond new york and a whole world beyond his world made it easier to breathe.