My Cousin Rachel: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Philip breakfasts alone, where he receives a note from Louise. She says she can meet him in town if he would like someone to talk to; “please remember,” she writes, “I am your friend, and always will be.” Philip accepts: “a sleepless night” and “an agony of loneliness” make him crave Louise’s company. He rides through the rain to town, where he and Louise take shelter in the church.

Louise does her best to comfort Philip. “There has been deception from the first,” she says, “and you were prepared for it, in the beginning, before [Rachel] came.” Philip replies that the only deception happened in “the last few hours,” and that he is to blame for the misunderstanding. Louise insists that Rachel has been taking advantage of Philip. She points out that Rachel has been steadily sending money out of the country, and suggests that Rachel has merely been biding her time until Philip’s twenty-fifth birthday when, “with [Nick Kendall] no longer guardian, she could bleed [Philip] as she chose.”

Philip takes Louise’s comments as “slander, almost blasphemy.” He responds that Louise has been prejudiced against Rachel from the moment she met her, and thinks that “no one could ever understand, save Ambrose, who was dead.” Louise asks what Philip’s future holds, and he says he will continue asking Rachel to marry him. When Louise asks what Rachel’s answer was the first time Philip asked, on the morning of his birthday, Philip replies: “We spoke at cross purposes […] I thought that she meant yes, when she meant no.”

Philip and Louise exit the church; Louise’s carriage is waiting to take her home. Louise tells Philip what happened when Rachel visited Pelyn on Philip’s birthday to discuss the transfer of the estate with Nick Kendall. Kendall pointed out the remarriage clause, emphasizing to Rachel that she must remain a widow in order to retain the Ashley estate and fortune. According to Louise, “Mrs. Ashley smiled at him and answered, ‘That suits me very well.’” Philip insists that if Rachel were to get remarried to him, this clause would not apply. “That is where you are wrong,” says Louise. “If she married you, the whole would revert to you again.”

Philip is offended. “[Rachel] would not refuse to marry me because of that one clause,” he says. “Is that what you are trying to suggest?” Louise replies: “A wife […] cannot send her husband’s money from the country, nor return to the place where she belongs. I suggest nothing.” Louise apologizes for hurting Philip, and leaves. Philip is dejected, having “come for comfort and found […] only cold hard facts, twisted to distortion.”

Philip spends some time at the inn in town, the Rose and Crown, and then rides home through the rain. At home, he learns from the servant John that Miss Mary Pascoe has come to stay at the estate. Confused, Philip goes upstairs to his room, where he finds a note from Rachel. She writes: “I have asked Mary Pascoe to stay here with me in the house as a companion. After last night, I cannot be alone with you again.”

Philip is enraged. Without changing out of his wet clothes, he storms to Rachel’s room, where he finds her with Mary. Philip insists on speaking to Rachel alone. Philip demands to know how long Mary will be staying; “as long as I choose,” says Rachel. Rachel says Mary’s presence not only gives her “some measure of security,” but will also help lessen the gossip that Philip’s “boast of marriage will have done little to improve.” “You threatened me last night,” says Rachel. “Once was enough.” She then bids Philip leave.

Philip now regrets strangling Rachel. He begins to worry that he has taken a chill, and orders dinner in his room. Later in the evening, he knocks on Rachel’s door, but it is locked and she does not answer. In the morning, Philip has a terrible headache. Seecombe summons Rachel to Philip’s side, and Rachel decides to send for the doctor. Philip is only half-lucid by the time the doctor arrives, but he hears an agitated Rachel telling the doctor that she has seen this illness before, and that it “attacks the spine, and then the brain.” Philip begs Rachel to stay with him, and she promises to “be with [him] all the time.”

Philip drifts off into a fevered dream, where he imagines himself on the banks of the Arno. “Rachel the beggar girl” approaches him “with empty hands,” naked except for the pearl collar around her neck. She points to the river, and Philip looks down to see Ambrose’s dead body floating past.