Rebecca Part IV

Maxim and the companion marry and go on honeymoon. After several weeks, they return in early summer to England and travel to Manderley. The young Mrs De Winter is nervous of the place, and finds that it is even bigger than she imagined. She knows that she's not accustomed even to staying in large country houses nor to managing a large staff of servants. The two senior servants are Frith, the elderly butler and Mrs Danvers the middle aged housekeeper. Mrs De Winter likes Frith but feels nervous with Mrs Danvers who seems unfriendly. Maxim seems different when they return. He had been warm and affectionate abroad, but now, he takes up his routine life managing the estate. He leaves his wife to find her own way. Mrs De Winter is unnerved by paying calls on the local gentry but it is a part of country social life that she cannot avoid. She is rather shocked at the expensive way they live, the waste of food, and the fact that she's expected to have a lady's maid. Maxim seems impatient with his wife's shyness, her fear of the servants and she begins to feel ignored. She meets the estate's agent, the shy clumsy bachelor Frank Crawley, and then meets one of Max's few relatives, his sister Beatrice... who comes for a visit. Beatrice is hearty and horsey and blunt and tactless but Mrs De Winter senses her good nature. However, she is shocked when Beatrice tells her that Mrs Danvers "simply adored Rebecca". She has begun to fear Rebecca's memory more and to feel that perhaps Maxim did marry her because he wanted a companion but that he does not love her as he cared for his first wife.