This chapter does little besides set the stage for the dramatic action to follow in Chapter IX. In fact, Hemingway explicitly foreshadows that action, as Lieutenant Henry says of the St. Anthony medal, "After I was wounded I never found him."
As usual, the author underplays drama and avoids melodrama: Catherine and Henry don't even kiss while bidding one another goodbye — presumably a result of hospital decorum or her British reserve. And as in an earlier scene, we learn about Henry's feelings not from the narrator himself but via the reaction of another character: "No, you can't kiss me here," Catherine says.
In terms of the novel's symbolism, it is significant that Henry ascends from the lowlands into the hills for his first encounter with heroism. And it is interesting that he says of the white mountains in the distance that "Those were all the Austrians' mountains and we had nothing like them." Again, Henry seems to be constructing a rationale for his forthcoming abandonment from the Italian army, albeit unconsciously. Unlike the Austrians, he suggests, the Italians are undisciplined, and thus perhaps they are not quite worth fighting for.
