'Poor kid,' said Favell. 'I don't suppose he's been on the loose since.
That old ass Frith keeps him on a leading string.'
He began drinking his whisky and soda, glancing round the room, looking at me every now and again, and smiling.
'I don't think I shall mind very much if Max doesn't get back to dinner,' he said.
'What say you?'
I did not answer.
I stood by the fireplace my hands behind my back.
'You wouldn't waste that place at the dining-room table, would you?' he said.
He looked at me, smiling still, his head on one side.
'Mr Favell,' I said,
'I don't want to be rude, but as a matter of fact I'm very tired.
I've had a long and fairly exhausting day.
If you can't tell me what you want to see Maxim about it's not much good your sitting here.
You had far better do as I suggest, and go round to the estate office in the morning.'
He slid off the arm of the sofa and came towards me, his glass in his hand.
'No, no,' he said.
'No, no, don't be a brute.
I've had an exhausting day too.
Don't run away and leave me, I'm quite harmless, really I am.
I suppose Max has been telling tales about me to you?'
I did not answer.
'You think I'm the big, bad wolf, don't you?' he said, 'but I'm not, you know.
I'm a perfectly ordinary, harmless bloke.
And I think you are behaving splendidly over all this, perfectly splendidly.
I take off my hat to you, I really do.'
This last speech of his was very slurred and thick.
I wished I had never told Frith I would see him.
'You come down here to Manderley,' he said, waving his arm vaguely, 'you take on all this place, meet hundreds of people you've never seen before, you put up with old Max and his moods, you don't give a fig for anyone, you just go your own way.
I call it a damn good effort, and I don't care who hears me say so.
A damn good effort.'
He swayed a little as he stood. He steadied himself, and put the empty glass down on the table.
'This business has been a shock to me, you know,' he said.
'A bloody awful shock.
Rebecca was my cousin.
I was damn fond of her.'
'Yes,' I said. 'I'm very sorry for you.'
'We were brought up together,' he went on.
'Always tremendous pals.
Liked the same things, the same people.
Laughed at the same jokes.
I suppose I was fonder of Rebecca than anyone else in the world.
And she was fond of me.
All this has been a bloody shock.'
'Yes,' I said.
'Yes, of course.'
'And what is Max going to do about it, that's what I want to know?
Does he think he can sit back quietly now that sham inquest is over?
Tell me that?'
He was not smiling any more.
He bent towards me.