Breaking the News to Mrs Van Hopper

Maxim goes to tell Mrs Van Hopper about the engagement. The narrator waits in her room, feeling nervous. She burns the page from the book of poems with Rebecca's inscription, symbolically destroying the past. Maxim returns and says Mrs Van Hopper is recovering from the shock. The narrator then goes to speak to Mrs Van Hopper, who is cynical and warns her that Maxim is only marrying her because he can't bear to live alone at Manderley.