Hoping to repeat the past, Jay Gatsby has Nick arrange a private meeting for him with Daisy at the bungalow. After Nick leaves the room, he hears "a sort of choking murmur and part of a laugh" that is followed by Daisy's voice that sounds artificial: "I certainly am awfully glad to see you again." To this there is again an awkward pause. Nick is not privy to their second attempt at a private conversation, so he only comments upon how Gatsby and Daisy appear afterwards.
Because Gatsby at first is so awkward, Nick feels he must return to the living room where Gatsby stands against the mantelpiece, with his hands thrust into his pockets. Daisy sits gracefully on the edge of a chair, albeit with a frightened look. That Gatsby is haunted by time is symbolized by the "defunct clock" which falls from the mantelpiece. Daisy breaks the silence saying, "We haven't met for many years," and Gatsby automatically states, "Five years next November," surprising both Daisy and Nick.
After they all have tea, Nick again leaves the room, and Gatsby runs after him, saying "This is a terrible mistake." Nick scolds him, "You're acting like a little boy....Daisy's sitting in there all alone." Nick then walks outside to wait. After he returns, Daisy has been crying and Gatsby "literally glowed." With exaggerated sentimentality, he shakes hands with Nick as though he has not seen him for a long time. Then he says,
"I want you and Daisy to come over to my house....I'd like to show her around."
Apparently,while they have been alone in Nick's bungalow, Gatsby has declared his undying love for Daisy, and Daisy has been moved by this sentiment as she has been crying. When Jay says, "What do you think of that? It's stopped raining" like "an ecstatic patron of recurrent light," Daisy tells him she is glad. Nick narrates that "her throat [that was] full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy." Gatsby's first actions to reclaim the past seem successful.
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