When Catherine exclaims that they are "going to have a strange life," Henry realizes she's going to be something more complicated than a quick conquest (Hemingway 27).
Love is a pleasurable diversion that distracts lovers from the outside world; the two often tell each other not to think about anything else, as it is too painful. Because of this diversion, Henry tells Catherine "I do love you" because even though he really doesn't at that moment, he feels it's the only way to forget about the war (Hemingway 31). Catherine's hair also helps Henry and Catherine feel protected from the cruel outside world. "She had wonderfully beautiful hair and I would lie sometimes and watch her twisting it up- (Hemingway 114). Catherine's hair is a symbol of the safe haven love can create in times of strife. She and Henry hide behind her hair to block out anything that may come between them. The major problem with such escapist love is, as Henry and other characters point out several times, one does not always know the stakes of love until it is over, or that one does not know about something until one has lost it. "You cannot know it unless you have it" (Hemingway 72). This statement is made about how Henry doesn't realize how much in love he is with Catherine yet and he won't until it is too late. "Love is always something had on leave, stolen from fate. Throughout, Frederic treats his love for Catherine as something already over, as recollection (Wyatt 291). Henry hardly allows himself to think of life without Catherine while he is in love because for a long time "the love he feels is almost entirely sexual and derives from the pleasure she gives him" (Donaldson 278). .
The couple's feelings for each other quickly pass from an amusement that distracts them to the fuel that sustains them. Henry says, "that my sweet love Catherine down might rain," which is ironic because Hemingway is using rain to heighten Henry's passion when it only serves as a destructive reminder of gloom and death during the army's retreat (Hemingway 197).
