And then he lay in his bed warm and satisfied while in the kitchen the woman fed the fire and boiled the water. He would  have like to have slept, now that he could, but his foolish body, which he had made to arise every morning so early for all these years, would not sleep although  it could, and so he lay there, tasting and savoring in his mind and in his flesh his luxury  of idleness.

He was still half ashamed to think of this woman of his. Part of the time he thought of his fields and of the grains of the wheat and of what his harvest would be if the rains came and of the white turnip seed he wished to buy from his neighbor Ching if they could agree upon a price.  But between all these thoughts which were in his mind every day there ran weaving and interweaving the new thought of what his life now was, and it occurred to him, suddenly, thinking of the night, to wonder if she liked him. This was a new wonder.

From “The Good Earth,” by Pearl S. Buck

Wang Lung, a young farmer, bought himself a wife. As her previous owner explained, “She will work for you in the field and drawing water and all else that you wish.  She is not beautiful but that you do not need. Only men of leisure have the need for beautiful women to divert them.” With great sensitivity, Pearl S. Buck describes the moment of wonder that every man experiences when waking up after spending a night with his new woman for the first time.