extraordinarily generous allowance of £5,000 per annum, suggesting the money is hers anyway. Rachel responds with gratitude and warmth and stays at the estate for an extended period, despite gossip. Yet when Mr. Kendall tells Philip that Rachel has overdrawn her accounts, and that in Florence she was notorious for "loose" living, Philip rejects Nick's warnings and instead turns over the entire estate to Rachel on his 25th birthday. When the day arrives, he solicits from her a vague romantic promise, which she gives, and they passionately kiss. However, the next day when Philip announces to his friends that he and Rachel are engaged to be wed, Rachel dismisses the announcement as lunacy. Rachel later tells Philip that her promise did not mean marriage, that she will never marry him, and she only showed him love the previous night because of the wealth he gave her. Emotionally devastated, Philip succumbs to bouts of fever and delirium, but Rachel nurses him back to health. In his fever, Philip imagines a wedding with Rachel, and wakes up three weeks later convinced they are married, and surprised to hear from the servants that she intends to move back to Florence. Before she leaves, Philip becomes convinced that Rachel is attempting to poison him and that she indeed murdered Ambrose. So great is his anger toward Rachel that he neglects to warn her about a foot bridge in need of repair at the edge of the estate. Instead, Philip and his friend Louise secretly rummage through Rachel's room for a letter from Rainaldi, assuming it will incriminate Rachel. Instead, upon discovering and reading the letter, they find out that Rainaldi merely discussed Rachel's affections for Philip and suggests she take Philip with him when visiting Florence. In the meantime, Philip finds Rachel has indeed suffered a fatal accident while crossing the unrepaired foot-bridge. With her last words, she asks Philip why he did not warn her of the danger. She then dies, leaving Philip to wonder for the rest of his life about his own implicit guilt as to the death of the innocent Rachel. Cast Production Daphne du Maurier's agent initially attempted to sell an adaptation of My Cousin Rachel for $100,000, as well as 5% of the international box office. This offer was rejected by every major studio, with Twentieth Century-Fox instead obtaining the rights in September 1951 for $80,000. Fox also