At this point, Favell is more concerned for his life than getting Maxim convicted. He is fearful that cancer is contagious, as out of everyone, he had the most contact with Rebecca. Colonel Julyan tells Favell to get it together and to go home if he wants to have an alcoholic outburst. Colonel Julyan tells Maxim that there is nothing to worry about with him, that he won't harm them in anyway, he's just all talk!
Maxim is in a hurry to return home to his estate and denies Colonel Julyan's offer to stay the night at his sisters: "I think we had better be independent. I must ring up Frank, and one thing and another" (378). They part ways, and Maxim and Mrs. de Winter start their journey home. They stop at a restaurant to dine and make plans to find somewhere to stay the night. During dinner time, Max decides that he needs to get in touch with Frank and let him know what had happened that day. He comes back to report that Frank was relieved; however, something strange has happened at the estate: "He thinks Mrs. Danvers has cleared out. She's gone, disappeared" (381). The couple talks about it for a while, Mrs. de Winter arguing that it's a good thing that she's gone anyway, but Maxim just doesn't have a good feeling about it.
Maxim gets exceptionally impatient and anxious while at dinner. He cannot wait to depart. He decides that they should just skip the hotel and return to the mansion at once, that evening. He said that Mrs. de Winter can sleep in the back seat and he will drive the whole journey. They depart and the journey to the estate begins. Mrs. de Winter has some awful nightmares, and strange dreams the entire way home. She is thinking about things that happened throughout her life, from Mrs. Van Hopper to Jasper the dog.
At last they are somewhat close to their homestead and decide to stop for a drink per Mrs. de Winters wishes. They continue on their way, when Mrs. de Winter is awoken suddenly from a nightmare. She decides that she isn't going to try and go back to sleep because they are so close to home. She comes to the front seat and sits with Max.
When they are in sight of the mansion, Mrs. de Winter says, "It looks almost as though the dawn was breaking over there, beyond those hills" (386). However, she was looking in the wrong direction. Then, she asks Max if those are the northern lights, beyond the mountains. To which he replies with, "that's Manderley" (386). "The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt winds from the sea" (386).
Mrs. Danvers burnt down Manderley! I can't believe that this is the end of the novel. It's comparable to a TV show that gets canceled and one never finds out the ending. The beautiful Manderley estate is no longer. That makes complete sense from the beginning of the novel when she says that they are in a hotel, no wonder! They no longer have a home to live in! Just pure imagination, but maybe Mrs. Danvers couldn't take the pain of knowing what her precious Rebecca had gone through and she burnt the home down with herself in it. Or, then there's the idea of if Rebecca can't have it, than no one can. Wow, complete shock!
Vocabulary:
crimson (386)- a rich deep red color
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