 How would the main character's reaction been different if his wife was alive when he came back home?
Images began to appear, drawn from inexhaustible files, wherein are kept all thoughts, past, present, and future.... Three days later they had landed in Spain, merged with another division, then crossed the Pyrenees into France, and finally to Paris where the fighting had begun. The Russians had not yet used the H-bomb; the threat of annihilation by the retaliation forces had been too great. Most of the cities and the majority of the population of both countries had been destroyed. Their families had long since died, their bodies turned to dust, their spirits fled on the winds to a new world. With what few men he had left, he had commandeered a small yacht, and they had taken to the sea.
 He would not have been as solemn as he was when he discovered she was no longer there.
 He would have realized her love for him had vanished.  He would not have been as solemn as he was when he discovered she was no longer there.  He would have been in a state of confusion because he would not have recognized his wife.  He would still be very depressed from the aftermath of the war.