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This is a short, important chapter. Henry wakes to Miss Gage, who has discovered his wine bottles but sympathizes with him. She tells him, perhaps a little jealously, that Catherine\'s there. She washes him and arranges for a barber to shave him.
Then comes a scene of some comedy, for the barber thinks Henry is not an American but a captured Austrian, an enemy. His flashing razor makes Henry nervous. It\'s a bit of comic relief that provides a break from the steady diet of heavy subject matter: life and death, right and wrong, lust and love.
The high point of the chapter is the entrance of Catherine Barkley immediately after the scene with the barber. It\'s a rapturous moment. She\'s fresh and young and beautiful, and Henry realizes the instant he sees her that he\'s in love. They make love, hurriedly, there in the hospital room.
Henry admits he had not wanted to fall in love with anyone, but it has happened anyway. Here you should probably be thinking of Rinaldi, who also was bent on avoiding love and is succeeding, if such avoidance is success.
The chapter ends with the good news that the doctor\'s coming.
NOTE: FOIL CHARACTERS A favorite device of dramatists, particularly Shakespeare, is the use of foil characters. A foil is a character who resembles the main character in all respects except one--the one trait that the writer wants to highlight. Rinaldi and Henry are both young, both officers, both in the medical service. But Henry has fallen in love; Rinaldi still patronizes the Villa Rossa. How will this difference affect them?
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