- Nabokov wants to tell us about two specific memories he has of Polenka.
- The first happened one June when both were thirteen, and Vladimir was butterfly hunting and found himself under some forest brush, beyond which he caught sight of a naked Polenka and her friends.
- The second happened on Christmas in 1916, when both were seventeen and Vladimir was waiting for a train home after a long day of skiing.
- Coincidentally, Polenka and a friend pass by, and she sad: "A barchuk-to menya ne priznal [Look, the young master does not know me]—' and that was the only time I ever heard her speak". (10.5.2)