When Mr. Jarndyce asks if he can practice sex with him, the teacher replies that he can, but only because he's just a kid back from the war. He's still a kid, he says, and he wants to be an adult. He wants a proper ring, he wants a ring that will satisfy him, but he doesn't want the other person to think that he is just trying to please them. He says that if they had had a proper conversation, he would have gone home. But if he had listened to him from the beginning, he might not have ended up upsetting him. He still wants to stay by his side, though, and says that he'll do his best to become a grown-up. He asks if she'll continue to hold him in her arms when he comes home, and she says that it reassures him that she's okay with him.