Chapter IV Summary

At 48 years of age, Mr. Chips feels content and satisfied. His career is going well—he had just been named house master. Over the summer break, Mr. Chips and a colleague, Rowden, are vacationing at the Lake District and renting rooms at an old farmhouse. Rowden is suddenly called away and Chips finds himself alone. Chips decides to hike one day and spots a woman waving his way. Thinking she's in trouble, he tries to rush to her but gets his ankle stuck between two rocks. As it turns out, the woman was in no trouble and had been waving at someone behind Chips. Ironically, the woman and her companion rush to help the now lame Chips.

Chips had never been comfortable around women and certainly not the New Woman of the nineties, that strong and independent creature. In his...