Another excerpt: "A Posthumous Confession"

This excerpt is re the narrator's initial thoughts about Anna (he's hoping she will become his wife):

For my part, I did not find her in the least attractive; but a lover of clear lines would probably have come to a different conclusion. The blue of the eyes was too light for me, the almost imperceptible lashes and eyebrows did not set the eyes off, the small, tilted nose gave her a childlike quality, and the cool, marbled skin aroused not the slightest sensual desire in me. If at that moment I had been permitted to give her a kiss, I would not have done it, or have done it without pleasure. Outdoors in a crowd she would certainly have passed me entirely unnoticed;  in these stuffy domestic surroundings we saw each other as two prisoners who could escape only by combining forces.