Her friend, Mrs Redmond, was a kindly, placid creature of forty-five. She was not rich, widely travelled or particularly clever. Under other circumstances she would have been puzzled to know what to say to a man of the world like Jonathan Strange, but happily his father had just died and that provided a subject.

“I dare say you are a great deal occupied just now, Mr Strange,” she said. “I remember when my own father died, there was a world of things to do. He left so many bequests. There were some china jugs that used to stand upon the kitchen mantelpiece at home. My father wished a jug to be given to each of our old servants. But the descriptions of the jugs in his will were most confusing and no one could tell which jug was meant for which person. And then the servants quarrelled and they all desired to be given the yellow jug with pink roses. Oh! I thought I would never be done with those bequests. Did your father leave many bequests, Mr Strange?”

“No, madam. None. He hated everybody.”

“Ah! That is fortunate, is it not? And what shall you do now?”

“Do?” echoed Strange.

“Miss Woodhope says your poor, dear father bought and sold things. Shall you do the same?”

“No, madam. If I have my way – and I believe I shall – my father’s business will all be wound up as soon as possible.”

“Oh! But then I dare say you will be a good deal taken up with farming? Miss Woodhope says your estate is a large one.”

“It is, madam. But I have tried farming and I find it does not suit me.”

“Ah!” said Mrs Redmond, wisely.

There was a silence. Mrs Redmond’s clock ticked and the coals shifted in the grate. Mrs Redmond began to pull about some embroidery silks that lay in her lap and had got into a fearful knot. Then her black cat mistook this activity for a game and stalked along the sopha and tried to catch at the silks. Arabella laughed and caught up the cat and started to play with it. This was exactly the sort of tranquil domestic scene that Strange had set his heart upon (though he did not want Mrs Redmond and was undecided about the cat) and it was all the more desirable in his eyes since he had never met with anything other than coldness and disagreeableness in his childhood home. The question was: how to persuade Arabella that it was what she wanted too? A sort of inspiration came over him and he suddenly addressed Mrs Redmond again. “In short, madam, I do not think that I shall have the time. I am going to study magic.”

“Magic!” exclaimed Arabella, looking at him in surprize.

She seemed about to question him further, but at this highly interesting moment Mr Redmond was heard in the hall. He was accompanied by his curate, Henry Woodhope – the same Henry Woodhope who was both brother to Arabella and childhood friend to Jonathan Strange. Naturally there were introductions and explanations to get through (Henry Woodhope had not known Strange was coming) and for the moment Strange’s unexpected announcement was forgotten.