After Pilar leaves, Robert Jordan and Maria make love. Robert Jordan feels the earth move beneath him. Afterward, he asks Maria if the earth moved for her as well, and she admits that it did. Maria regrets that her hair is so short, but Robert Jordan insists that he finds her beautiful.

They continue walking down the mountain. Robert Jordan reflects on his future. He ponders the possibility of marrying Maria. He does not know where they will live, however. He has difficulty seeing her as a professor’s wife in an American college town. He wants to return to teaching Spanish in a university but wonders if he will be able to get a position now that he has fought with the Communists in the Spanish Civil War. He fears he may be blacklisted. He thinks about his political views and realizes that he no longer has any. He is fighting for the Communists because he likes their discipline. But when the war is over, he will not consider himself a Communist.

Robert Jordan thinks about the women in his past, of which there have been several. He has not loved any one as he loves Maria. But he realizes that the intensity of his passion may be short-lived.  He thinks it might simply be because Pilar pushed Maria into his arms, though he realizes that he was attracted to her from his first sight of her. Maria brings his attention back to the present, stating that she wants to learn the little things required if she wants to be his woman. He insists that she does not need to learn all that, but she says she must.

As they continue down the mountain, they see Pilar sitting against a tree with her head on her arms. They rush down, but she insists that she was only sleeping. Pilar begins to press Maria for information about her love-making experience with Robert Jordan, who becomes angry with her and wants to slap her. Maria repeatedly refuses to answer her questions but at last tells her that she felt the earth move. Pilar also drags this information out of Robert Jordan. She tells him that such experiences occur only three times in one’s life. Robert Jordan realizes that Pilar is trying to keep her hold on life through Maria. He contemplates pursuing a formal study of women, starting with Pilar. He tells her that he is tired of all her mysteries. He also tells her to leave Maria alone. Looking up at the sky, Pilar predicts snow even though it is late in May.