Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (79 page)

The two ladies were glad of a companion and asked him a great many questions about himself. They were most interested to learn that he was a magician; they had never met one before.

“And have you found any magical texts in my library?" asked Mrs Lennox.

“None, madam," said Mr Segundus. “But magical books, valuable ones, are very rare indeed. I would have been most surprized to find any."

“Now that I think of it," mused Mrs Lennox, “I believe there were a few. But I sold them all years ago to a gentleman who lived near York. Just between ourselves I thought him a little foolish to pay me such a great sum for books no one wanted. But perhaps he was wise after all."

Mr Segundus knew that “the gentleman who lived near York" had probably not paid Mrs Lennox one quarter the proper value of the books, but it does no good to say such things out loud and so he smiled politely, and kept his reflections to himself.

He told them about his pupils, both male and female, and how clever they were and how eager to learn.

“And since you encourage them with such praise," said Mrs Blake, kindly, “they are sure to fare better under your tutelage than they would with any other master."

“Oh! I do not know about that," said Mr Segundus.

“I had not quite understood before," said Mrs Lennox, with a thoughtful air, “how universally popular the study of magic has become. I had thought that it was confined to those two men in London. What are their names? Presumably, Mr Segundus, the next step is a school for magicians? Doubtless that is where you will direct your energies?"

“A school!" said Mr Segundus. “Oh! But that would require - well, I do not know what exactly - but a great deal of money and a house."

“Perhaps there would be difficulty in acquiring pupils?" said Mrs Lennox.

“No, indeed! I can think of four young men immediately."

“And if you were to advertise . . ."

“Oh! But I would never do that!" said Mr Segundus, rather shocked. “Magic is the noblest profession in the world - well, the second noblest perhaps, after the Church. One ought not to soil it with commercial practices. No, I would only take young men upon private recommendation."

“Then all that remains is for someone to find you a little money and a house. Nothing could be easier. But I dare say your friend, Mr Honeyfoot, of whom you speak with such regard, would wish to lend you the money. I dare say he would want to claim that honour for his own."

“Oh, no! Mr Honeyfoot has three daughters - the dearest girls in the world. One of them is married and another is engaged and the third cannot make up her mind. No, Mr Honeyfoot must think of his family. His money is quite tied up."

“Then I can tell you my hope with a clear conscience! Why should I not lend you the money?"

Mr Segundus was all amazement and for several moments quite at a loss for an answer. “You are very kind, madam!" he stammered at last.

Mrs Lennox smiled. “No, sir. I am not. If magic is as popular as you say - and I shall, of course, ascertain the opinion of other people upon this point - then I believe the profits will be handsome."

“But my experience of business is woefully small," said Mr Segundus. “I should fear to make a mistake and lose you your money. No, you are very kind and I thank you with all my heart, but I must decline."

“Well, if you dislike the notion of becoming a borrower of money - and I know it does not suit everyone - then that is easily solved. The school shall be mine - mine alone. I will bear the expence and the risk. You will be master of the school and our names will appear upon the prospectus together. After all, what better purpose for this house could there be than as a school for magicians? As a residence it has many drawbacks, but its advantages as a school are considerable. It is a very isolated situation. There is no shooting to speak of. There would be little opportunity for the young men to gamble or hunt. Their pleasures will be quite restricted and so they will apply themselves to their studies."

“I would not chuse young men who gamble!" said Mr Segundus, rather shocked.

She smiled again. “I do not believe you have ever given your friends a moment's anxiety - except for worrying that this wicked world would quickly take advantage of someone so honest."

After dinner Mr Segundus dutifully returned to the library and in the early evening he took his leave of the two ladies. They parted in a most friendly manner and with a promise on Mrs Lennox's side that she would soon invite him to Bath.

On the way back he gave himself stern warnings not to place any reliance on these wonderful plans for Future Usefulness and Happiness, but he could not help indulging in ideal pictures of teaching the young men and of their extraordinary progress; of Jonathan Strange coming to visit the school; of his pupils being delighted to discover that their master was a friend and intimate of the most famous magician of the Modern Age; of Strange saying to him, “It is all excellent, Segundus. I could not be better pleased. Well done!"

It was after midnight when he got home, and it took all his resolve not to run to Mr Honeyfoot's house immediately to tell them the news. But the following morning when he arrived at the house at a very early hour, their raptures were scarcely to be described. They were full of the happiness he had hardly dare allow himself to feel. Mrs Honeyfoot still had a great deal of the schoolgirl in her and she caught up her husband's hands and danced around the breakfast-table with him as the only possible means of expressing what she felt. Then she took Mr Segundus's hands and danced around the table with
him
, and when both magicians protested against any more dancing, she continued by herself. Mr Segundus's only regret (and it was a very slight one) was that Mr and Mrs Honeyfoot did not feel the
surprize
of the thing quite as he intended they should; their opinion of him was so high that they found nothing particularly remarkable in great ladies wishing to establish schools solely for his benefit.

“She may consider herself very lucky to have found you!" declared Mr Honeyfoot. “For who is better fitted to direct a school for magicians? No one!"

“And after all," reasoned Mrs Honeyfoot, “what else has she to do with her money? Poor, childless lady!"

Mr Honeyfoot was convinced that Mr Segundus's fortune was now made. His sanguine temper would not permit him to expect less. Yet he had not lived so long in the world without acquiring some sober habits of business and he told Mr Segundus that they would make some inquiries about Mrs Lennox, who she was and whether she was as rich as she seemed.

They wrote to a friend of Mr Honeyfoot's who lived in Bath. Fortunately Mrs Lennox was well known as a great lady, even in Bath, a city beloved by the rich and the elevated. She had been born rich and married an even richer husband. This husband had died young and not much regretted, leaving her at liberty to indulge her active temperament and clever mind. She had in- creased her fortune with good investments and careful manage- ment of her lands and estates. She was famed for her bold, decisive temper, her many charitable activities and the warmth of her friendship. She had houses in every part of the kingdom, but resided chiefly at Bath with Mrs Blake.

Meanwhile Mrs Lennox had been asking the same sort of questions about Mr Segundus, and she must have been pleased with the answers because she soon invited him up to Bath where every detail of the projected school was quickly decided.

The next months were spent in repairing and fitting up Stare- cross Hall. The roof leaked, two chimneys were blocked and part of the kitchen had actually fallen down. Mr Segundus was shocked to discover how much everything would cost. He calculated that if he did not clear the second chimney, made do with old country settles and wooden chairs instead of buying new furniture, and confined the number of servants to three, he could save £60. His letter to this effect produced an immediate reply from Mrs Lennox; she informed him he was not spending enough. His pupils would all be from good families; they would expect good fires and comfort. She advised him to engage nine servants, in addition to a butler and a French cook. He must completely refurnish the house and purchase a cellar of good French wines. The cutlery, she said, must all be silver and the dining-service Wedgwood.

In early December Mr Segundus received a letter of congratulation from Jonathan Strange, who promised to visit the school the following spring. But in spite of everyone's good wishes and everyone's endeavours, Mr Segundus could not get rid of the feeling that the school would never actually come into being; something would occur to prevent it. This idea was constantly at the back of his thoughts, do what he would to suppress it.

One morning around the middle of December he arrived at the Hall and found a man seated, quite at his ease, upon the steps. Though he did not believe he had ever seen the man before, he knew him instantly: he was Bad Fortune personified; he was the Ruin of Mr Segundus's Hopes and Dreams. The man was dressed in a black coat of an old-fashioned cut, as worn and shabby as Mr Segundus's own, and he had mud on his boots. With his long, ragged dark hair he looked like the portent of doom in a bad play.

“Mr Segundus, you cannot do this!" he said in a Yorkshire accent.

“I beg your pardon?" said Mr Segundus.

“The school, sir. You must give up this notion of a school!"

“What?" cried Mr Segundus, bravely pretending that he did not know the man spoke an inevitable truth.

“Now, sir," continued the dark man, “you know me and you know that when I say a thing is so, that thing will be so - however much you and I might privately regret it."

“But you are quite mistaken," said Mr Segundus. “I do not know you. At least I do not believe I ever saw you before."

“I am John Childermass, Mr Norrell's servant. We last talked nine years ago, outside the Cathedral in York. When you confined yourself to a few pupils, Mr Segundus, I was able to turn a blind eye. I said nothing and Mr Norrell remained in ignorance of what you were doing. But a regular school for grown-up magicians, that is a different matter. You have been too ambitious, sir. He knows, Mr Segundus. He knows and it is his desire that you wind up the business immediately."

“But what has Mr Norrell or Mr Norrell's desires to do with me?
I
did not sign the agreement. You should know that I am not alone in this undertaking. I have friends now."

“That is true," said Childermass, mildly amused. “And Mrs Lennox is a very rich woman, and an excellent woman for business. But does she have the friendship of every Minister in the Cabinet like Mr Norrell? Does she have his influence? Remember the Society of Learned Magicians, Mr Segundus! Remember how he crushed them!"

Childermass waited a moment and then, since the conversation appeared to be at an end, he strode off in the direction of the stables.

Five minutes later he reappeared on a big, brown horse. Mr Segundus was standing, just as before, with his arms crossed, glaring at the paving-stones.

Childermass looked down at him. “I am sorry it ends like this, sir. Yet, surely all is not lost? This house is just as suited to another kind of school as it is for a magical one. You would not think it to look at me, but I am a very fine fellow with a wide acquaintance among great people. Chuse some other sort of school and the next time I hear that a lord or lady has need of such an establishment for their little lordlings, I will send them your way."

“I do not want another kind of school!" said Mr Segundus, peevishly.

Childermass smiled his sideways smile and rode away.

Mr Segundus travelled to Bath and informed his patroness of their dismal situation. She was full of indignation that some gentleman she had never even met should presume to instruct her in what she could and could not do. She wrote Mr Norrell an angry letter. She got no reply, but her bankers, lawyers and partners in other business ventures suddenly found themselves in receipt of odd letters from great people of their acquaintance, all complaining in an oblique fashion of Mr Segundus's school. One of the bankers - an argumentative and obdurate old person - was unwise enough to wonder publicly (in the lobby of the House of Commons) what a school for magicians in Yorkshire could possibly have to do with him. The result was that several ladies and gentlemen - friends of Mr Norrell - withdrew their patronage from his bank.

In Mrs Honeyfoot's drawing-room in York a few evenings later Mr Segundus sat with his head in his hands, lamenting. “It is as if some evil fortune is determined to torment me, holding out great prizes in front of me, only to snatch them away again."

Mrs Honeyfoot clucked sympathetically, patted his shoulder and offered the same damning censure of Mr Norrell with which she had consoled both Mr Segundus and Mr Honeyfoot for the past nine years: to wit, that Mr Norrell seemed a very odd gentleman, full of queer fancies, and that she would never under- stand him.

“Why not write to Mr Strange?" said Mr Honeyfoot, suddenly. “He will know what to do!"

Mr Segundus looked up. “Oh! I know that Mr Strange and Mr Norrell have parted, but still I should not like to be a cause of argument between them."

“Nonsense!" cried Mr Honeyfoot. “Have you not read the recent issues of
The Modern Magician
? This is the very thing Strange wants! - some principle of Norrellite magic that he can attack openly and so bring the whole edifice tumbling down. Believe me, he will consider himself obliged to you for the opportunity. You know, Segundus, the more I think of it, the more I like this plan!"

Mr Segundus thought so too. “Let me only consult Mrs Lennox and if she is in agreement, then I shall certainly do as you suggest!"

Mrs Lennox's ignorance concerning recent magical events was extensive. She knew very little of Jonathan Strange other than his name and that he had some vague connexion to the Duke of Wellington. But she was quick to assure Mr Segundus that if Mr Strange disliked Mr Norrell, then she was very much in his favour. So on the 20th December Mr Segundus sent Strange a letter informing him of Gilbert Norrell's actions in regard to the school at Starecross Hall.