Ten years pass before Maugham meets Larry or Isabel again. He encounters Elliott from time to time and through him keeps up with Isabel’s life, but Elliott neither knows nor cares what is happening to Larry. Many years later, Larry will tell Maugham what he did during those 10 years. Maugham recounts part of the story here for the sake of continuity:

After parting with Isabel, Larry goes to work in a coal mine. In the mining town, he shares a boardinghouse room with a Polish miner called Kosti who drinks too much and cheats at cards—but when drunk, Kosti talks about the nature of reality and union with God. The spring comes, and Kosti asks Larry if he wants to get out of the mining town. Larry agrees, and the two of them set off hiking through Belgium and Germany. By day, Kosti teaches Larry German, and by night, when Kosti is drunk, he talks eloquently of Ecstasy and the Ineffable and the Dark Night of the Soul. This reference to the Dark Night of the Soul foreshadows the end of Chapter 2 in which Larry will walk alone through the night and arrive at the dawn with a new purpose.