“Let me fetch Mr Strange.”

Arabella laughed. “You may if you wish, but I assure you he will be a great deal less concerned about me than you are. Mr Strange has never been much interested in other people’s indispositions. His own are quite another matter! But, there is no need to fetch any body. See! I am myself again. I am perfectly well.”

There was a little pause.

“Lady Pole …” began Arabella and paused, not knowing quite how to continue.

“Her ladyship is generally calm enough,” said Sir Walter, “not exactly at peace, you understand, but calm enough. But on the rare occasions when any one new comes to the house, it always excites her to these outlandish speeches. I am sure you are too good to repeat any thing of what she has said.”

“Oh! Of course! I would not repeat it for the world!”

“You are very kind.”

“And may … may I come again? Her ladyship seems to wish it very much and I would be very happy in the acquaintance.”

Sir Walter took a long moment to consider this proposal. Finally he nodded. Then he somehow turned his nod into a bow. “I shall consider that you do us both great honour,” he said. “Thank you.”

Strange and Arabella left the house in Harley-street and Strange was in high spirits. “I see the way to do it,” he told her. “Nothing could be simpler. It is a pity that I must wait for Norrell’s opinion before beginning or I believe I might solve the entire problem in the next half hour. As I see it, there are two crucial points. The first … Whatever is the matter?”

With a little “Oh!” Arabella had stopt.

It had suddenly occurred to her that she had given two entirely contradictory promises: one to Lady Pole to tell Strange about the gentleman in Yorkshire who had purchased a carpet; and the second to Sir Walter not to repeat any thing that Lady Pole had said. “It is nothing,” she said.

“And which of the many occupations that Sir Walter was preparing for you did you fix upon?”

“None of them. I … I saw Lady Pole and we had some conversation together. That is all.”

“Did you indeed? A pity I was not with you. I should have liked to see the woman who owes her life to Norrell’s magic. But I have not told you what happened to me! You remember how the negro servant came in very suddenly? Well, just for a moment I had the distinct impression that there was a tall black king standing there, crowned with a silver diadem and holding a shining silver sceptre and an orb – but when I looked again there was no one there but Sir Walter’s negro servant. Is not that absurd?” Strange laughed.

Strange had gossiped so long with Sir Walter that he was almost an hour late for his appointment with Mr Norrell and Mr Norrell was very angry. Later the same day Strange sent a message to the Admiralty to say that Mr Norrell and he had looked into the problem of the missing French ships and that they believed they were in the Atlantic, on their way to the West Indies where they intended to cause some mischief. Furthermore the two magicians thought that Admiral Armingcroft had guessed correctly what the French were doing and had gone after them. The Admiralty, on the advice of Mr Strange and Mr Norrell, sent orders to Captain Lightwood to follow the Admiral westwards. In due course some of the French ships were captured and those that were not fled back to their French ports and stayed there.