Robert proposes a moonlit swim and the company drifts to the beach. She has struggled all summer to swim until tonight, when she suddenly finds power in the water, shouts for joy, and swims out alone while others play. She tells Léonce only that she thought she might perish; he says she was not far and he was watching.
Couples walk paired; Edna hears Robert behind her and wonders at his distance. Exultation makes her daring; she turns seaward seeking unlimited space, then looks back and sees the shore as an uncrossable barrier. A quick vision of death weakens her, but she rallies and regains land. She dresses early, waves off calls to stay, and walks home alone until Robert overtakes her.
They speak of fear, exhaustion, and the thousand emotions she cannot parse; he offers the August twenty-eighth spirit legend. Wounded by seeming flippancy, she still takes his arm; he settles her in a hammock, fetches her shawl, and they share silence heavier than speech while desire stirs. Chopin binds physical mastery, terror, and erotic charge in one night.
Léonce tells her she was never far out and that he was watching, minimizing the terror she felt when the shore looked like an uncrossable barrier. Robert overtakes her on the walk home, settles her in a hammock with her shawl, and shares silence heavier than speech while the August legend of spirits fails to comfort her.
Coming Up in Chapter 11
Past one in the morning Léonce finds Edna still in the hammock where Robert left her and orders her inside. Until tonight she would have yielded without thinking; now her will blazes up, stubborn and resistant, as he fumes on the gallery with wine and cigars.
