 The petty conflicts that erupt during the conversation represent each character's fear that their new spouse in fact does not have the same assumptions about what is expected of them, and by extension, that the new partner does not love them in the way they want to be loved.The wife in particular is concerned about her powerlessness in the marital arrangement, mentioning several times the fact that she is "alone" on a train with the husband, away from her family.Although the characters appear to have come to an unspoken consensus by the end, the author makes heavy use of irony to imply that this is only the first of many failures to communicate.