Soho

Soho is the London district where Maxim and the second Mrs de Winter stop for dinner after their visit to Doctor Baker, a meal that becomes the turning point from crisis to fragile recovery. The restaurant, a narrow, dark establishment in a Soho side street, provides the physical and emotional shelter in which the couple, exhausted and emptied by the day's revelations, first allow themselves to believe that the worst is over. It is here, over brandy and lobster, that the narrator begins to plan a future free of Rebecca's shadow, and here that Maxim receives the unsettling news of Mrs Danvers's disappearance.

The Setting and the Meal

Maxim stops the car opposite a small restaurant in a narrow Soho street, telling his wife that she is empty and tired and fit for nothing, and that she will be better when she has had something to eat. The restaurant is dark and cool, with no other diners; only the maître d'hôtel, a waiter, and a girl behind a desk are present. They take a table in the far corner. Maxim orders food and insists that his wife have brandy, saying that Favell was right about wanting a drink and that she needs one too. The maître d'hôtel, fat and smiling, produces long thin rolls in paper envelopes that are very hard and very crisp; the narrator begins eating one ravenously. Her brandy and soda is soft, warming, and curiously comforting. The waiter brings her lobster, very hot and good, and she has another brandy and soda. She feels pleasant and comfortable, and nothing matters very much; she smiles at the waiter and asks for more bread in French for no reason. The restaurant is quiet and happy and friendly.

The Conversation and the Shift in Power

As they sit in their dark corner, Maxim orders another drink and reflects on Rebecca's final act. He tells his wife that he believes Rebecca lied to him on purpose, that her last supreme bluff was to make him kill her, that she foresaw the whole thing and that is why she stood there laughing when she died. The narrator does not answer; she continues drinking her brandy and soda, thinking that it is all over, all settled, and that it does not matter any more. She feels that there is no need for Maxim to look white and troubled. When Maxim suggests that Rebecca may have won even now, the narrator asks how she can have won, but Maxim only says he does not know. He then gets up to telephone Frank Crawley. While he is gone, the narrator sits in her corner, and the waiter brings her fish. She feels better and stronger than before; it is she who is now taking care of Maxim. She tells him to eat his lobster, that it will do him good, that he wants something inside him, that he is tired—using the words he had used to her. She begins to plan the future: with Mrs Danvers gone, she will learn to control the house, interview the cook, learn about the estate, have people to stay, and have children. She thinks that surely they will have children.

The Telephone Call and the Ominous News

Maxim returns from telephoning Frank and reports that Frank sounded glad and relieved at the news about Baker. But something odd has happened: Mrs Danvers has cleared out. She said nothing to anyone, but she had been packing all day, stripping her room of things, and the station man came for her boxes at about four o'clock. Frith telephoned Frank about it, and Frank told Frith to ask Mrs Danvers to come down to the office. She never came. About ten minutes before Maxim rang, Frith telephoned again to say that there had been a long-distance call for Mrs Danvers, which he had switched through to her room, and she had answered. At a quarter to seven he knocked on her door and found her room empty. They think she has gone, straight out of the house and through the woods, never passing the lodge gates. The narrator argues that this is a good thing, that it saves them trouble, that they would have had to send her away anyway. She believes that Mrs Danvers guessed the truth, that there was an expression on her face the night before that the narrator kept thinking of during the drive up. But Maxim says he does not like it. The narrator insists that Mrs Danvers can do nothing, that it was Favell who telephoned and told her about Baker, that Colonel Julyan said they were to tell him if there was any attempt at blackmail. Maxim replies that he is not thinking of blackmail. The narrator presses him, asking what else they can do, and says they must do what Colonel Julyan said: forget it, not think about it any more, go down on their knees and thank God that it is finished. Maxim does not answer; he stares in front of him at nothing.

The Decision to Return

Maxim suddenly decides that he must get down to Manderley that night, despite the late hour. He asks his wife if she can sleep in the back of the car, wrapped in the rug, with the cushion and his coat. She agrees doubtfully. He says that if they start now, at a quarter to eight, they ought to be there by half past two, and there will not be much traffic on the road. She worries that he will be terribly tired, but he shakes his head and says he will be all right. He wants to get home. Something is wrong, he knows it is, and he wants to get home. His face is anxious, strange. The narrator cannot understand why he should worry now, when everything is over. He does not answer. She climbs into the back of the car and lies down with her legs tucked under her; he covers her with the rug. She settles the pillow under her head and tells him she is all right, that she will sleep, that it is much better to do this and get home, that they will be at Manderley long before sunrise. The car draws away, and she feels the slight jolting of the springs under her body. The motion is rhythmic and steady, and the pulse of her mind beats with it. She falls into a strange, broken sleep, waking now and again to the reality of her cramped position and the sight of Maxim's back in front of her, until she wakes fully to see the red glow on the horizon that is Manderley burning.