Her face was expressionless once more, the cold white mask that I knew.
'We had better go down,' she said,
'Frith will be looking for me to make arrangements.
Mr de Winter may bring the men back to the house as he said.
Be careful of your hands, I'm going to shut the window.'
I stepped back into the room still dazed and stupid, not sure of myself or of her.
I watched her close the window and fasten the shutters, and draw the curtains in their place.
'It's a good thing there is no sea running,' she said, 'there wouldn't have been much chance for them then.
But on a day like this there's no danger.
The owners will lose their ship, though, if she's run on the reef as Mr de Winter said.'
She glanced round the room to make certain that nothing was disarranged or out of place.
She straightened the cover on the double bed.
Then she went to the door and held it open for me.
'I will tell them in the kitchen to serve cold lunch in the dining-room after all,' she said, 'and then it won't matter what time you come for it.
Mr de Winter may not want to rush back at one o'clock if he's busy down there in the cove.'
I stared at her blankly and then passed out of the open door, stiff and wooden like a dummy.
'When you see Mr de Winter, Madam, will you tell him it will be quite all right if he wants to bring the men back from the ship?
There will be a hot meal ready for them any time.'
'Yes,' I said. 'Yes, Mrs Danvers.'
She turned her back on me and went along the corridor to the service staircase, a weird gaunt figure in her black dress, the skirt just sweeping the ground like the full, wide skirts of thirty years ago.
Then she turned the corner of the corridor and disappeared.
I walked slowly along the passage to the door by the archway, my mind still blunt and slow as though I had just woken from a long sleep.
I pushed through the door and went down the stairs with no set purpose before me.
Frith was crossing the hall towards the dining-room.
When he saw me he stopped, and waited until I came down into the hall.
'Mr de Winter was in a few moments ago, Madam,' he said.
'He took some cigarettes, and then went back again to the beach.
It appears there is a ship gone ashore.'
'Yes,' I said.
'Did you hear the rockets, Madam?' said Frith.
'Yes, I heard the rockets,' I said.
'I was in the pantry with Robert, and we both thought at first that one of the gardeners had let off a firework left over from last night,' said Frith, 'and I said to Robert,
"What do they want to do that for in this weather?
Why don't they keep them for the kiddies on Saturday night?"
And then the next one came, and then the third.
"That's not fireworks," says Robert, "that's a ship in distress."
"I believe you're right," I said, and I went out to the hall and there was Mr de Winter calling me from the terrace.'
'Yes,' I said.
'Well, it's hardly to be wondered at in this fog, Madam.
That's what I said to Robert just now.
It's difficult to find your way on the road, let alone on the water.'
'Yes,' I said.
'If you want to catch Mr de Winter he went straight across the lawn only two minutes ago,' said Frith.
"Thank you, Frith,' I said.
I went out on the terrace.
I could see the trees taking shape beyond the lawns.
The fog was lifting, it was rising in little clouds to the sky above.
It whirled above my head in wreaths of smoke.
I looked up at the windows above my head.
They were tightly closed, and the shutters were fastened.