[open]

[ironicalsmile]

It has been some time since the Mansion has seen hide or hair of Mr. Jonathan Strange. It's hard to believe that a man could possibly remain so long (three months, indeed, is quite a long time!) in a library, but if any man might possibly be capable of such a feat, it would be Strange

Comments

[colored_gowns]

"Why, there you are," she says, as if she last saw him only a moment ago. She smiles, just a little.

[ironicalsmile]

"Arabella!" Strange stares at her as though he has never seen her before, as though, despite his instinctive cry of her name, he does not recognize her; after a moment, he shakes his head a little, and his eyes focus.

"How - how are you?"

[colored_gowns]

"I am well. But you look rather pale, my dear."

[ironicalsmile]

"Too little sunlight, my love," he returns, with the ghost of his old sardonic smile. Indeed, the darkness swirls around him like an overzealous shadow, despite the lamps shining smugly on the walls.

[colored_gowns]

"But of course. I should have thought. But even so, won't you come sit a moment to get away from that library?"

[ironicalsmile]

"I will, and gladly," and again the faint twist of an ironical smile. "I see you take it for granted that I have been in the library, then."

[colored_gowns]

"Am I incorrect?"

[ironicalsmile]

He has to consider this for a moment, head tipped to one side, eyes on a corner of the ceiling above Arabella's head. "Oh, more or less correct," he says vaguely. "I suppose, in a sense, it was entirely still within the library."

[colored_gowns]

"Where did you go?" she asks, taking hold of his arm that she may lead him down the hall to their room.

[ironicalsmile]

He allows himself to be led like a small child. "I hardly know; I do not even know if the places had names at all..."

[colored_gowns]

"Well," Arabella, who does not want to think about faerie places with no names, says. "At least you weren't simply sitting amongst those books for all that time."

[ironicalsmile]

His smile this time is vaguely unsettling, with hardly any of his usual expression in it. "Indeed."

[colored_gowns]

She looks away. "Well," she says lightly, after a moment. "I rather wish I could offer you some tea, but it seems the closet refuses to give any."

[ironicalsmile]

"Does it?" The interest and surprise on his face do a great deal to bring back the old Jonathan. "I had thought the magic of that old thing inexhaustible; surely, after tolerating for so long the many and obscure demands made upon it by the denizens of this estate, it must have been an extraordinary thing indeed to drain the well, as it were."

[colored_gowns]

"I've no idea how it happened, it simply did. Perhaps you might look into it."

[ironicalsmile]

"Ah - yes. Perhaps I should." He rubs his forehead. "...perhaps tomorrow."