Philip enters the boudoir to find Rachel, small-statured and dressed in mourning, sitting at the window, while Don, the dog, lies before the fire. Both are initially nervous and shocked by meeting—she by his strong resemblance to Ambrose, he by her diminutive stature. She is not as Philip imagined her to be. The moment of mutual awkwardness passes as she sits by the fire.

Rachel recalls stories that Ambrose told her about Philip’s childhood, including when he received Don as a present for his 10th birthday. She apologizes for not coming to dinner. She tells him the house feels exactly as Ambrose described it, and she thanks him for these rooms—the suite she and Ambrose had planned to use—explaining that Ambrose had always intended for Philip to have his room. She then tells a humorous story about the suite’s previous occupant, Aunt Phoebe, who experienced two decades of lovesickness. Her narrative makes Philip smile despite himself.

When Seecombe arrives with an elaborate silver tea service Philip has never seen, both Philip and Rachel struggle to contain their laughter. Rachel gives Philip permission to smoke his pipe, which surprises him. As he grows drowsy by the fire, she gently tells him to go to bed. Before he leaves, she astounds him with her knowledge that Saturday is wage-payment day. When he asks how she knows this, her eyes fill with tears. She retrieves Ambrose’s walking stick from the bedroom, gives it to him, and abruptly ushers him from the room. Standing in the corridor, Philip compares the suffering look in her eyes to a beggar woman he saw in Florence.

The next morning, Philip arranges for Wellington to prepare the old horse, Solomon, and a sidesaddle for Rachel’s mount. Wellington refers to Rachel as the “mistress” (106), which surprises Philip. While Philip prepares to pay the estate wages, he finds Rachel already working in the forcing ground with Tamlyn, the head gardener, who is impressed by her superior knowledge. She has already visited his cottage, drunk tea with his wife, and promised to send eucalyptus oil for Mrs. Tamlyn’s sore throat.

After lunch, Philip leads Rachel on Solomon on a tour of the Barton farmlands. He tests her knowledge of the estate, and she knows every field name and tenant detail from her conversations with Ambrose. When she mentions her unhappy first marriage and wonders what Philip would think of her villa gardens, he begins to suspect his godfather omitted from his letter the fact that he has been to Florence. He feels like a coward for not telling her but cannot find the words.

Back at the house after dinner, Rachel senses something is troubling him and asks what it is. Philip inquires about Nick’s letter from Plymouth, and she confirms it mentioned only that they had heard of Ambrose’s death from Rainaldi. Philip then confesses he learned of the death himself at the villa in Florence. Rachel looks at him with an expression of “both compassion and reproach” (115).

Rachel is shocked to learn Philip arrived at the villa the day after she left for Genoa. She reproaches him for not telling her sooner. Philip recounts his journey, prompted by two disturbing letters from Ambrose. He describes visiting the villa, seeing the death chamber, receiving Ambrose’s forgotten hat from a servant, and meeting with Rainaldi. He gives Rachel the two letters to read.

After reading them, Rachel quietly remarks that Philip must have hated her. Philip confesses his hatred and his original plan to make her suffer. Her eyes fill with unshed tears as she says he has succeeded. Unable to bear seeing a woman cry, Philip begs her to leave. He throws the letters into the fire, but she says they both remember the words. She offers to depart on Monday.

Philip tells her he cannot hate her because she is not the woman he imagined. He confesses his jealousy began when he first learned Ambrose had married. Rachel suggests Ambrose’s trouble was similar—marriage came too late, and his love became a destructive obsession. She says his nature changed, which doctors later attributed to the brain illness that ultimately killed him, but she feels partly responsible. If Ambrose had stayed in Cornwall, he would still be alive.

Rachel confesses she was intensely jealous of Philip, the spoiled boy who held most of Ambrose’s heart. On the staircase, she kisses his cheek and teases that if he does not like it, he can pretend it came from “the other woman” (127), meaning the hateful version of her he had imagined.

On Sunday, Philip orders the carriage in Rachel’s honor for the first time since Ambrose left. In the carriage, he teases her about her veil and Catholic upbringing, recounting how he and Ambrose once let mice loose during a church service. He suddenly remembers he forgot his promise to visit Louise the previous day.

At church, a crowd of curious onlookers gathers. Philip feels proud escorting Rachel up the aisle, noticing Louise looks stiff and haughty. Sitting in the pew, Philip reflects on his childhood and, for the first time, on his parents, whom he cannot remember. Ambrose “answered for them both” (134), he thinks. After the service, Rachel arranges for Philip to drive home with Louise while she rides with Nick.

In the carriage, Philip apologizes to Louise, who remains cold. She presses for details of his confrontation with Rachel and he is evasive. Louise calls Rachel “very beautiful” (137), which astonishes Philip. He disagrees, saying Rachel is ordinary and easy to talk to. Louise makes pointed remarks about Rachel’s age and clothes. Philip accuses her of gossip. They ride home in tense silence.

The Sunday dinner is a great success, with everyone charmed by Rachel except Louise, who remains silent and withdrawn. After dessert, Philip and Rachel share a smiling glance across the table that gives him a strange new feeling. Nick remarks on Philip’s strong resemblance to Ambrose, and Rachel replies the resemblance is so strong she has wondered if there is “any difference” (141) at all.

As the guests depart, Mrs. Pascoe and Nick both invite Rachel to stay with them. After they leave, Philip and Rachel relax in the drawing room. She teases that he should marry Louise to have a permanent hostess. Philip vehemently denies any intention of marrying Louise and is angry that his godfather gave her this impression. He insists that Rachel refuse the invitations to visit Pelyn and the vicarage and stay with him instead, and he then lays out a mock-serious schedule for visiting tenants and receiving county callers.

Rachel parries by saying she would rather give Italian lessons. Horrified, Philip makes a thoughtless blunder, remarking that widows either remarry as fast as possible or sell their rings. Rachel retorts that she will do neither and leaves the room. Mortified by his “altogether oafish and ill-bred” (150) behavior, Philip suddenly realizes that she may genuinely be in financial straits, so he resolves to speak to his godfather about providing her an allowance from the estate.

Walking outside later, Rachel calls to him from her bedroom window. He tries to apologize but is tongue-tied. She throws a flower down to him, tells him not to be foolish, and closes the window.

On Thursday, when the plants Rachel brought from Italy arrive, she works in the garden all day with Tamlyn. Philip rides to Pelyn to see Nick, insisting they provide Rachel with a generous quarterly allowance immediately. Nick writes to Rachel, explaining the allowance comes from the estate, with Philip watching to ensure that his name is not mentioned. They arrange for Nick’s man to deliver the letter to make it seem more official. Before leaving, Philip has a tense conversation with Louise, who makes a sharp comment about how a woman of the world like Rachel can twist a young man “around her finger” (159). Philip leaves in anger.

Philip returns home, exhausted and hungry after a 20-mile ride. Wellington scolds him for returning his horse in a lather. Seecombe reports that Rachel, after working in the garden all day, came in around three o’clock to bathe and wash her hair. In his room, Philip finds a bowl of flowers and realizes that Rachel put them there.

He knocks on her boudoir door, and she invites him in. Philip is stunned to see her in a white dressing wrapper with her hair pinned up. He confesses that he has never seen a woman in a state of undress before. As they talk, Nick’s man arrives late with the letter about the allowance.

Rachel emerges from reading the letter, pale-faced and angry. She accuses Philip of going to Pelyn to manipulate his guardian and says he has humiliated her. Philip’s nervousness vanishes, and he retorts that she is “damnably proud” (165). In anger, he declares that for Mrs. Ambrose Ashley to give Italian lessons would shame her late husband, and he insists that she view the allowance as coming from Ambrose himself instead of as an act of charity. Rachel’s eyes fill with tears, and she runs into her bedroom, slamming the door.

Philip dines alone, angry and reflecting on women’s baffling nature. The library feels empty without her. In his bedroom, he finds an apologetic note from Rachel, in which she accepts the allowance. Relieved, he goes to her darkened room to thank her. She tells him that she must leave for London on Monday. Dismayed, Philip pleads with her to stay. As a master stroke, he asks her to remain for the autumn to oversee the gardens, just as Ambrose would have wished. She hesitates, then quietly agrees to stay for a little while. She kisses him and tells him to go to bed, playfully calling him a good boy.

Philip goes to the hall to post a letter to his godfather. When he opens the post bag, he finds two letters from Rachel: one to Nick and another to Signor Rainaldi in Florence. The discovery makes him feel as if she has hit him after all.