The young Mrs De Winter is nervous of the place, and finds that it is even bigger than she imagined and has a large staff.... and 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 uneasy and nervous with Mrs Danvers who seems rather unfriendly. Maxim seems different when they return. Having been a warm and affectionate husband abroad, he seems to take up his routine life managing the estate and leaving his wife to make her own life. 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 seems to ignore her more and more. She meets the estate's agent, the shy unattractive bachelor Frank Crawley, and then meets one of Maxs 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 rather shocked when Beatrice tells her that Mrs Danvers "simply adored Rebecca".
She has begun to fear Rebecca's memory more and 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.
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