What is the nature of conflict in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"?

The nature of
the conflict in Hemingway's "" is essentially existential.  With minimal authorial
intervention, it is left to the reader to determine what struggles exist in the old man and the
older waiter.  The tension of the conflict resides in the dialogue of the two waiters, "two
different kinds."  The younger waiter lets the old man's brandy glass pour over until it
"slopped over and ran down the stem."  He is not ordered, and accuses the old waiter
of "talking nonsense."  Like the old man who attempted suicide, since his life had
nothing left, the old waiter also seeks a clean, well-lighted place, a place of order and light
against the "nada," the nothingness of life.

In an essay [cited
below] entitled, "Character, , and Resolution in 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,'"
Warren Bennett observes the dichotomy between confidence as exhibited by the younger waiter and
despair found in the older waiter; he notes, also, the irony that works throughout the story. 
Bennett perceives the conflict between this younger confidence and the older despair.

This profound difference between the two waiters is "embedded" in the casual
conversation about the old man who has attempted suicide because he has lacked anything to live
for.  This despair the old waiter understands as he, too, seeks a lighted place against the
darkness of "nada," and his despair and the anguish of being alone.  His is the
existential struggle to find some meaning in the nothingness and absurdity of
life.