Perhaps it was because I had generally seen her alone, and beside me she had seemed tall and gaunt, but she looked shrunken now in size, more wizened, and I noticed she had to look up to Favell and to Frank and Maxim.
She stood by the door, her hands folded in front of her, looking from one to the other of us.
'Good evening, Mrs Danvers,' said Colonel Julyan.
'Good evening, sir,' she said.
Her voice was that old, dead, mechanical one I had heard so often.
'First of all, Mrs Danvers, I want to ask you a question,' said Colonel Julyan, 'and the question is this. Were you aware of the relationship between the late Mrs de Winter and Mr Favell here?'
'They were first cousins,' said Mrs Danvers.
'I was not referring to blood-relationship, Mrs Danvers,' said Colonel Julyan. 'I mean something closer than that.'
'I'm afraid I don't understand, sir,' said Mrs Danvers.
'Oh, come off it, Danny,' said Favell; 'you know damn well what he's driving at.
I've told Colonel Julyan already, but he doesn't seem to believe me.
Rebecca and I had lived together off and on for years, hadn't we?
She was in love with me. wasn't she?'
To my surprise Mrs Danvers considered him a moment without speaking, and there was something of scorn in the glance she gave him.
'She was not,' she said.
'Listen here, you old fool…' began Favell, but Mrs Danvers cut him short.
'She was not in love with you, or with Mr de Winter.
She was not in love with anyone.
She despised all men.
She was above all that.'
Favell flushed angrily.
'Listen here.
Didn't she come down the path through the woods to meet me, night after night?
Didn't you wait up for her?
Didn't she spend the weekends with me in London?'
'Well?' said Mrs Danvers, with sudden passion, 'and what if she did?
She had a right to amuse herself, hadn't she.
Love-making was a game with her, only a game.
She told me so.
She did it because it made her laugh. It made her laugh, I tell you.
She laughed at you like she did at the rest.
I've known her come back and sit upstairs in her bed and rock with laughter at the lot of you.'
There was something horrible in the sudden torrent of words, something horrible and unexpected.
It revolted me, even though I knew.
Maxim had gone very white.
Favell stared at her blankly, as though he had not understood.
Colonel July an tugged at his small moustache.
No one said anything for a few minutes.
And there was no sound but that inevitable falling rain.
Then Mrs Danvers began to cry.
She cried like she had done that morning in the bedroom.
I could not look at her.
I had to turn away.
No one said anything.
There were just the two sounds in the room, the falling rain and Mrs Danvers crying.
It made me want to scream.
I wanted to run out of the room and scream and scream.
No one moved towards her, to say anything, or to help her.
She went on crying.
Then at last, it seemed eternity, she began to control herself.