Day Four, Afternoon, Little Compton, Cornwall
- Stevens has now arrived at the Rose and Garden Hotel in Little Compton, where he's killing time in the dining hall until his 3 o'clock meeting with Miss Kenton. It's raining.
- Stevens thinks back to the beginning of his day. Dr. Carlisle had picked him up from the cottage and given him some gas to get him to the next town.
- On the drive, Dr. Carlisle asked Stevens if he was a manservant, and Stevens readily admitted that he was the butler of Darlington Hall.
- After Dr. Carlisle dropped Stevens off at his Ford, Stevens drove into Cornwall in the morning, while it was still sunny.
- Through the morning, Stevens can't help but think over one memory: standing in front of Miss Kenton's parlor door, knowing somehow that behind the door she was crying.
- Stevens believes this memory is not from the day Miss Kenton found out about her aunt's death, but from an evening a few months later.
- That evening Mr. Cardinal (the same Mr. Cardinal that Stevens attempted to have a birds-and-the-bees talk with in 1923) had shown up. He was now a columnist on international affairs.
- Stevens went to tell Miss Kenton to prepare a room for Mr. Cardinal, but she replied that she couldn't; she was going out that night.
- Miss Kenton then notified Stevens that her acquaintance had asked her to marry him.
- Stevens seemed to ignore Miss Kenton as he prepared to get the dinner service ready for Mr. Cardinal and Darlington.
- Before Stevens began the dinner service, Miss Kenton interrupted him and accused him of being unhappy about her leaving that night. Stevens denied that he was. Miss Kenton stormed off.
- During the dinner Mr. Cardinal and Darlington were quiet. But when they retired to the smoking-room, Stevens could hear them arguing. Mr. Cardinal later left for the library and Darlington went to his study.
- At 8:30, Stevens opened the door to two "distinguished gentlemen," whom Darlington escorted into the drawing room. Herr Ribbentrop arrived, and Stevens led him to the drawing room as well.
- A couple hours later, the back door rang. It was Miss Kenton, who announced to Stevens that she was getting married and leaving service.
- Stevens congratulated her.
- Miss Kenton told Stevens that she often amused her acquaintance with imitations of Stevens. Stevens didn't seem to care—he had the gentlemen to attend to.
- When Stevens went back upstairs, Mr. Cardinal asked him for some brandy.
- Mr. Cardinal confided his worries about Darlington's activities: he believed Darlington was being manipulated by the German government to promote Nazi interests in England.
- Darlington asked Stevens to bring up some port, so Stevens went back downstairs.
- As he walked past Miss Kenton's parlor, she opened the door and apologized for insulting him. Stevens appeared not to know what she was talking about.
- He walked past her parlor door again with the port. This time he felt paralyzed, certain that if he knocked he would find her crying in her room.
- But Stevens didn't knock; he went back upstairs to the drawing room with the port. After handing Darlington the port, he sat at his station outside the drawing room, feeling pleased with himself.