My Cousin Rachel: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

November and December pass, and for the first time, Philip finds that “autumn [passes] without monotony.” Philip and Rachel fall into a comfortable pattern. In the mornings, she works in the garden while he tends to estate business. The pair then have lunch together, and in the afternoon, Rachel makes calls in the carriage while Philip holds meetings and deals with estate matters. The two reunite for dinner. Philip’s favorite moment of the day is waiting for Rachel to meet him in the library before dinner; the sound of her dress in the hall always gives him “a shock of anticipation.” He begins to wonder “how [he] could ever have thought [Rachel] unremarkable.”

Rachel and Philip spend the evenings either in the library, with Philip as host, or in the blue room, with Rachel as hostess. They “lose formality” with one another, and Philip feels lonely when Rachel leaves him each night and goes to bed. He also begins to suffer from insomnia, staying awake until the early morning, “brooding in [his] chair, thinking of nothing, wasting the silent hours.”

In December, Philip’s lonely nights take on a magical quality. He sits in front of an open window and listens to the “eerie, unmistakable” sounds of a vixen outside. He begins to feel as if he inhabits a world of “enchantment” and he realizes he “[does] not want it for [him]self alone.” Philip begins to vacillate between moods of “exultation and excitement” to “dullness and depression,” because he knows Rachel might decide to leave the estate at any moment.

Philip decides to revive Ambrose’s tradition of giving a Christmas Eve dinner for the tenants on the estate. Philip arranges the decoration of a large Christmas tree, and Rachel plans the dinner menu; each keep their task secret from the other, giving the house an air of “excitement, and mystery too.” Philip feels anxious about what he might give Rachel as a present, until he remembers there might be something amongst the Ashley family jewels he could give her. He decides to go to the bank to look at the jewels.

At the bank, Philip looks at the jewels but quickly remembers that Rachel will not wear colored stones because she is still in mourning for Ambrose. All seems solved when Philip sees a pearl collar he remembers from his childhood. The banker explains that Philip’s mother was the last person to wear the necklace, and that many other Ashley women have worn it on their wedding days. The banker is reluctant to allow Philip to withdraw the necklace from the bank, saying he would prefer if Philip’s legal guardian, Nick Kendall, were present. Philip insists on taking the necklace, and leaves the bank feeling “much elated.”

Preparations for the dinner continue. The guests will all be tenants of the estate, with the addition of the Kendalls and the Pascoes. On the night of the dinner, Philip leaves the pearl collar in Rachel’s room with a note asking her to “wear it tonight, and always.” When he is dressed, Philip waits downstairs for Rachel, feeling nervous because he has never before given a woman a present.

Rachel comes downstairs dressed for the dinner, wearing the pearl collar. Philip is struck by the realization that he finds her beautiful. Rachel puts her arms around Philip, and kisses him; Philip returns the kiss. Without exchanging any words, Philip and Rachel walk together to the room where the dinner will take place, holding hands as they approach “the laughing surge of voices and the bright expectant faces.”