At first I thought -oh, how romantic. But as I thought about it I realized it wasn't romantic--it was a selfish desire to be spared the effort of compromise, sometimes forgiveness, that is required in a long lasting relationship. Later, when the painting's appearance was revealed, at first it made no sense to me that she loved it. I'd expected a portrait of her. But again, she liked it because it showed her as unattainable, somewhere hidden in that windowless house with a door impossible to reach. That is how she wanted to be--isolated from everything except the momentary euphoria of love-making. When it was revealed, much later, that she'd been pregnant at the time and when she disappears after the fire it was even more evident that, but for her maternal love for a child, who will not hurt her, she is totally shut herself away from any true intimacy with anyone.