In this chapter, we learn that the narrator has a "subjective" theory about the events of the previous chapter. In other words, he's trying to guess what's going on in other people's lives. He's also trying to figure out what the other characters in the story are feeling about their own love affairs. The narrator doesn't know whether he was hurt or not, but he does know that he has a tendency to skip stones when he feels upset. He imagines that the person he is upset at is the person who he'd like to avoid, and then he throws the stone away. He tells us that his mother taught him how to do this, but she didn't tell him who she imagined the person to be. He wonders why he threw the stone down, and wonders if he'll ever be able to forgive himself for it. He also wonders if Mr. Sawyer will admit that he was cheated on before, and if he thinks that he himself has been cheated on, too. He wants to know how he plans on healing the wounds of his past.