She had always been…the motive power of her own happiness. For once, she wanted to feel herself carried by the power of someone else’s achievement. As men on a dark prairie liked to see the lighted windows of a train going past…the sight of power and purpose that gave them reassurance in the midst of empty miles and night–so she wanted to feel it for a moment, a brief greeting, a single glimpse, just to wave her arm and say: Someone is going somewhere.
(Related: This is pretty funny.)