Hills Like White Elephants

What is indicated about the past life of the man and the girl? How? What has happened to the quality of their relationship? Why? How do we Know? How accurate is the mans judgement about their future?

The man and the girl like to talk because it is what the hole story is.  They are just friends because they just talk like how friends talk.

What purpose does the setting serve-the hills across the valley, the treeless railroad tracks and station? What is contributed by the precise information about time at the end of the first paragraph?

I think that the artistic setting is to get the reader hooked into the story because on one side its hills and on the other its railroad tracks.