- It is mid-January, and Frederic has grown a beard. The snow on the roads is packed down so they can walk on it, and they do, wearing boots with nails in the soles to keep them from slipping on the ice.
- Catherine asks about money, and Frederic says they have enough, from his last sight draft.
- She asks if his family will try to contact him, and he says that he has not written them. They only know where he is because of the sight draft.
- He says that he used to care about his family, but fought with them too much.
- Catherine says that after the baby, "young Catherine," is born she will be new and Frederic might fall in love with her again. He says that he’s in love already and asks if she wants to "ruin him." She says she does and he says he wants this, too.