My Cousin Rachel: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

As the dinner guests are leaving the Ashley house, Philip hears Kendall mention that Rachel will be coming to Pelyn. Philip “squash[es] the idea,” saying that Rachel will be staying with him and paying visits to “every one of the tenants in strict precedence.” Happy to be alone together, Philip and Rachel discuss the evening. When Philip expresses how pleasant he found it, Rachel says: “Then you had better hurry up and marry your Louise, and have a real hostess, not just a bird of passage.”

Philip insists he does not want to marry anyone, least of all Louise. Rachel insists that Louise would make an excellent wife, and Philip bids her “be quiet.” He also tells her to forget about staying at Pelyn or at the vicarage with the Pascoes, who have also issued her an invitation. “I am the master here,” he says. “Then I must do as I am bid,” Rachel replies. “That is part of a woman’s training too.” Philip suspects Rachel might be laughing at him, but she is looking down, and he “[cannot] see her eyes.”

Rachel teases Philip by suggesting that he “make up a little list of rules” for her to study “while [she] is waiting [at the Ashley house] to be called upon,” since Philip has forbidden her from visiting. Philip begins inventing a schedule for Rachel, but she soon protests, saying that he is “drawing up for [her] a programme of leisure for which [she is] entirely unsuited.” Instead, she suggests, she could give Italian lessons to the estate’s tenants. Horrified, Philip insists that “only spinsters give lessons, when they have no one to support them.” When Rachel asks what a widow should do in “similar circumstances,” Philip replies: “Oh, widows marry again as fast as possible, or sell their rings.” Rachel says she would prefer giving Italian lessons, pats Philip’s shoulder, and leaves the room.

Philip is immediately humiliated by his thoughtless comment to Rachel. He knows he will not be able to sleep because he will be kept awake by shame at how “blundering” and “unfeeling” he was. Instead he takes Don out for a walk about the grounds. He begins to worry about the fact that Ambrose’s will makes no financial provision for Rachel, and he decides to visit Nick Kendall to see what can be done. “Thank heaven I had thought of [this],” he reflects. “Italian lessons… How shaming, how appalling.”

As he continues to walk, Philip hears Rachel’s voice calling to him from her open bedroom window. Though he would like to apologize, Philip finds himself “tongue-tied and ashamed.” As Philip stands below Rachel’s window, Rachel reaches behind her and drops down a flower to him, from one of the displays that was put in her room. Philip feels instantly “light of heart.”

On Thursday morning, Rachel’s Italian plants arrive from Plymouth, and Philip uses the opportunity to visit Nick Kendall at Pelyn. The two discuss Rachel’s situation, and Kendall resolves that “the best plan will be to pay a quarterly cheque, from the estate, into an account” that he will open for Rachel. Philip decides on an extravagant sum to be paid Rachel, and watches with satisfaction as Kendall writes a letter to her informing her that “it was the wish of the estate that provision should be made for her.” Philip takes a copy of the letter with him so he can drop it off at the bank.

As he is leaving Pelyn, Philip runs into Louise. He asks whether she has gotten over her “vile humour” from Sunday, saying it was “a wonder the Pascoe girls did not remark upon it.” Louise retorts that the Pascoes were far more likely to have been remarking upon “how simple it must be for a woman of the world, like Mrs. Ashley, to twist a young man like [Philip] around her finger.” Philip leaves in a huff, feeling as though “he could have struck [Louise].”