The Romaszkan pond is a wooded leisure spot whose apparent calm gives way to danger when Stefania and Adèle encounter Josef Ridny at the water’s edge. The near-drowning there is a decisive episode in the trio’s relationship: Adèle’s romantic daydream and Josef’s delighted return are overtaken by a fall, obscured water, and the narrator’s fear of being dragged under.

Setting and Circumstances

On a languid afternoon in late May, Stefania and Adèle are out in a boat, trying to remain as long as possible in the shaded alcoves made by weeping willow branches. The pond initially offers a sheltered setting for Adèle’s romantic longing. She imagines replacing Stefania in the boat with a blond man sporting a brush moustache: a Hungarian corporal in the imperial-royal hussars whom she has seen twice on Sedelmeyer Street. She is drawn to his cold gaze and military bearing, his purple shako and silver-threaded sabre hilt, as well as the rumor that he has lost absolutely everything at cards.

The boat’s slow passage along the bank makes the encounter feel like an interruption of an intimate, enclosed outing. Once the women leave the shade and follow the shoreline, the effort of rowing begins to ache in Stefania’s arms, back, and lower back. Adèle spots Josef and waves her parasol frantically, calling him over and announcing that the two women are in the boat. Her exuberant summons sets the reunion in motion before Stefania has reached shore.

Reunion at the Shore

Adèle orders Stefania to row toward land, while Josef is already waiting there, moved and smiling. He appears even taller and thinner than Stefania remembers, and she notices his small teeth and the distinctive nose that has continued to trouble her attention. Before the boat has even arrived, Josef and Adèle are calling to each other like close friends meeting after a long separation. Their familiarity contrasts with Stefania’s labor at the oars and her unsettled attention to Josef’s appearance.

When the boat reaches the bank, Josef bends over it like a bridge and gallantly helps Adèle down. He then offers Stefania his hand. She is surprised by the assurance in his gaze, but the moment does not proceed as a composed greeting: as soon as she touches him, Josef loses his balance on the wet clay. He grabs her forearms reflexively, and they both topple into the water. The boat falls over them, replacing the open shore with darkness.

The Accident and Its Aftermath

Stefania remembers the fall only indistinctly. In the brief underwater interval, she is probably flailing and swallowing water in panic; weeds and mud tangle around her arms and keep her from moving. The immediate threat is Josef himself, who pulls her toward the bottom and nearly chokes her. The scene’s danger comes not from a deliberate attack but from the physical chain of a slippery bank, an instinctive grasp, and the impediments of the pond. A courteous hand offered at the shore becomes the means by which both people fall, and Josef’s attempt to hold on makes escape harder.

Stefania regains her senses only once they are in a carriage moving along the main avenue. Josef is as pale and frightened as she is; Adèle alone can barely contain her laughter. The contrast closes the episode on three sharply different responses to the same accident: Stefania’s confused alarm, Josef’s visible shock, and Adèle’s barely restrained amusement. Afterward Josef disappears for a time again, and when he reappears, it is their last meeting.

Narrative Significance

The pond episode reverses the scene’s emotional direction. The shaded boat ride begins in leisurely privacy and Adèle’s fantasy of a military admirer; the shoreline promises a reunion marked by Josef’s joy and polite attention. Yet the contact that should complete that welcome instead produces darkness, panic, and a near-drowning. The change is especially pointed because the danger arises at the instant Stefania touches Josef’s hand: physical closeness does not resolve the unease surrounding their connection but turns it into immediate peril.

The episode also makes the pond more than a picturesque backdrop. Willow shade and slow rowing give way to wet clay, obstructing weeds, and mud; the water that seemed to offer refuge from the effort of the afternoon becomes a trap. Its consequences extend beyond the accident itself: Josef’s renewed disappearance and their final subsequent encounter give this reunion the force of a temporary return rather than a new beginning. The pond holds the moment when an apparently ordinary meeting briefly becomes a struggle for survival, and then releases the characters into an aftermath none of them experiences in quite the same way.