In this chap­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist, Hold­en Caulfield, reflects on his mem­o­ries of Jane Gal­lagher, a girl he deeply cares for. As he sits in a worn-out lob­by chair, he becomes con­sumed with thoughts of her and a date she had with Strad­later, feel­ing pos­ses­sive yet unsure about their roman­tic dynam­ics. He recounts their close friend­ship, high­light­ing their shared love for sports like ten­nis and golf, which allowed him to know her inti­mate­ly over the sum­mer. Their first con­nec­tion stemmed from a humor­ous inci­dent involv­ing Jane’s dog reliev­ing itself on his family’s lawn, spark­ing an awk­ward yet gen­uine con­ver­sa­tion.

Hold­en vivid­ly describes Jane’s quirks; although not con­ven­tion­al­ly beau­ti­ful, her unique fea­tures and man­ner­isms cap­ture his atten­tion. He cher­ish­es the time they spent togeth­er, espe­cial­ly an after­noon when they played check­ers on her porch. Dur­ing this time, Jane’s emo­tion­al strug­gle becomes appar­ent when tears roll down her face, reveal­ing her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. This moment cul­mi­nates in a del­i­cate moment of inti­ma­cy between them, where Hold­en express­es affec­tion by kiss­ing her face, even though a deep­er con­nec­tion remains elu­sive.

Despite the bond they share, Jane is affect­ed by her com­pli­cat­ed home life, par­tic­u­lar­ly her rela­tion­ship with her moth­er and her moth­er’s hus­band. Hold­en feels pro­tec­tive of her and spec­u­lates about the dynam­ics at play. Jane is dif­fer­ent from oth­er girls he has known; he val­ues their inno­cent hand-hold­ing and mutu­al com­fort, which stands in con­trast to more super­fi­cial inter­ac­tions he has expe­ri­enced.

As he sits in the lob­by, Hold­en is struck by feel­ings of despair and iso­la­tion. The absence of oth­er guests ampli­fies his sense of lone­li­ness, dri­ving him to leave for a night­club named Ernie’s. He remem­bers accom­pa­ny­ing his broth­er D.B. there before his broth­er went to Hol­ly­wood and became dis­en­chant­ed with life. Ernie, the pianist, rep­re­sents the dual­i­ty of his talents—entertaining yet some­what elitist—a reflec­tion of the world Hold­en finds him­self reluc­tant­ly nav­i­gat­ing. The chap­ter ends with an expres­sion of his mood—a mix of long­ing, sad­ness, and a desire for con­nec­tion.