Chapter 4 Summary

The next morning Mrs. Van Hopper is taken ill. The doctor recommends that the woman have a full-time nurse to take care of her and orders strict bed rest. The author goes down to lunch alone. Mr. de Winter is the only other person in the dinning room and his table is right next to hers. She is nervous sitting down and knocks over the vase. Mr. de Winter helps her clean up and then invites her to lunch with him at his table. The author does not want him to invite her out of pity, and he convinces her that pity was not his motive.

The two talk comfortably throughout lunch. The author tells him that Mrs. Van Hopper pays her a salary to be her traveling companion. Her parents are both dead. She speaks to him about her father, whom she...