If she did not appear as an attractive woman, would he still love her soul? I can imagine loving a woman so, that I reach past the physical in my yearning to be one with her.
Yet...I once fell in love with a girl - who I only saw in a dream. It has remained, two decades later, still the most beautiful love I have ever felt, though we only shared a few minutes....and the amazing thing is, she is still more real than women I have loved in the flesh.
Yes, a very deep question, Arthur. I always told my Lit students that the way of evaluating their love for someone is if they would spend time talking on the telephone with them. It sounds curious, but it's the closest we get to soul to soul communication without physical proximity entering the picture. Mind you, I know people nowadays use messaging on computer as a way of avoiding the entanglement of spending 'real' time with a person. Ironically, in the story, the narrator developed a relationship with the woman through texting, but later realized he had a prior relationship with her having seen her in his dreams - a case similar to yours.
All of this is giving me mental bumblebees - the bottom line is that many of my characters have rarefied relationships with ghosts, hence the Shakespearean quote at the story's end - Some there be that shadows kiss. Such have but a shadow’s bliss. I think I need a drink of wine, but it's only 4 pm here, lol