At the Lipce Tavern, Antek and Mateusz the Young Villager convert a violent quarrel into a public show of reconciliation, but their talk about Jagna exposes how much rivalry remains beneath the accord. The scene moves from suspicion to shared drinking and apparent brotherhood, then turns inward: Mateusz confesses the jealousy that fed his hostility, while Antek’s pained reaction makes clear that peace has not erased his sense of betrayal.

From the doorway to the bench

The reconciliation begins amid a crowded evening at the Lipce Tavern. Mateusz, still dependent on a stick and only recently out of bed, has been drinking vodka boiled with honey beside the hearth. He calls cheerfully to his friends until he notices Antek standing in the doorway. Antek walks past without acknowledging him, a gesture that leaves the earlier conflict suspended between them rather than settled.

Mateusz calls Antek over. Antek, mistaking the summons for a challenge, answers sharply that Mateusz should come to him if he has a problem. Mateusz replies that he cannot yet move without his stick. The exchange briefly holds open the possibility of another confrontation, but Mateusz catches Antek by the arm and makes him sit on the bench. That physical gesture changes the scene’s direction: instead of meeting as opponents, they are placed side by side.

Naming the quarrel and offering accord

Mateusz recalls that Antek shamed him in front of everyone and beat him so badly that someone called the priest. He describes the injuries as bloodied flesh and cracked ribs, and acknowledges that the beating followed his own repeated needling and nasty words. Antek, for his part, says Mateusz provoked him until he stopped caring what he was doing. Neither man pretends that the violence was imaginary or inconsequential; their reconciliation begins by naming the grievance and its cause.

Mateusz says he bears no anger and has come first to make peace. He turns the beating into an acknowledgment of Antek’s strength, describing how Antek tossed him like a sheaf and comparing him favorably with another strong man. Antek answers that he had beaten that man too, during the harvest indulgences, and had heard he was still recovering. Their exchange recasts physical violence as a contest whose outcome Mateusz can accept and even praise. The language of strength provides a way back to companionship without requiring either man to deny what happened.

A denial, drinks, and a private confession

Antek remains wary. He quietly asks whether what Mateusz had been telling the young men was true. Mateusz denies it, saying he had spoken out of spite; as he answers, he peers at the bottle under the light, keeping Antek from reading the truth in his eyes. The scene leaves the exact content of the disputed claim unstated. Mateusz’s guarded manner nevertheless complicates the reassurance: his denial settles nothing with complete certainty.

They drink again. Antek buys a round, and the two sit together as if they were brothers. The rest of the tavern marvels at how quickly the former enemies have become friends. Mateusz calls for the musicians to play faster, taps his foot, and laughs with the young men. Then he quiets and leans in to speak privately to Antek. The shift from conspicuous fellowship to an intimate aside marks the limit of the public settlement: their shared drink can restore the appearance of comradeship, but the matter that most troubles them still requires a confidence between the two of them.

Mateusz admits that he had wanted Jagna and says she clawed his face when he pursued her. He believes she preferred Antek, and says jealousy gnawed at him because of it. He calls Jagna exceptionally beautiful and cannot understand why she chose the old man, whom he says wronged Antek. This confession gives the rivalry an intimate cause: Mateusz’s resentment was bound up with desire, rejection, and his perception that Jagna’s marriage injured Antek as well as disappointing him.

The limits of making peace

Antek responds that Jagna’s choice brought him to ruin. The memory inflames him so sharply that he almost leaps up, but he remains seated, cursing and muttering instead. The physical restraint matters: the men have made peace, yet the mention of Jagna brings Antek close to renewed violence. The reconciliation has changed their relation to each other without resolving the hurt attached to her.

The scene therefore gives the friendship a double character. In the room, the beating becomes something Mateusz can acknowledge, tease about, and finally set aside; the shared rounds persuade the onlookers that the two men are again companions. In private, however, Mateusz’s confession reveals the jealousy that lay behind the quarrel, while Antek’s agitation shows that his own grievance remains active. Their accord is genuine in the immediate moment, but it is not a clean ending to the emotional conflict. The public ease of two men drinking side by side coexists with the unresolved pain named in Mateusz’s whisper.