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It was amusing, watching the new magician finding his way through the streets of York, how he would raise his eyes from the cobblestones and look up and see, with unfailing surprise, that he reached his destination, as if he forgot where he was going or was going somewhere to begin with.
For Childermass, his own path – whether among the old buildings of the city, or in life altogether – was always clear, and arriving was never a surprise, even when any other would give up hope.
When he saw Mr Segundus for the first time, however, he felt somewhere deep inside that he must've got lost at some point and was now finally back on track. The little magician's presence felt like a key sliding into a lock, or the pointer of a compass finally resting on the North. If Childermass needed a sign to deliver him from doubt, it would be it. But there was no doubt in his heart, and regardless of the sensation's intensity, it was just yet another proof he hadn't strayed.
When Mr Segundus saw Childermass for the first – one of many firsts – time, there was something fleeting and familiar in his eyes (or, maybe, two somethings, but one of them was not Childermass's business whatsoever). Childermass wondered if his own revelation looked like that, if it also manifested in a couple of fast blinks and a wince at phantom bright light. In any case, it was nice to know he wasn't alone on this road and with a fellow traveler who couldn't get lost even if he wanted to.
And for that reason (and, as he begrudgingly admitted later, for another, which wasn't anyone's business whatsoever – though could he really tell if these two weren't actually one and the same?), he felt some remorse later on, when his master's plan was in its full swing.
A necessary part of it was depriving the Society of magic, and while most of them would live their normal life with it or without – gentlemen tend to have it easy when it comes to picking up fancy useless hobbies – doing so to John Segundus was simply cruel. But in his stubbornness, Mr Norrell didn't care for such things, and the plan went on.
So Childermass had to hide a smile – a grin, rather, wider than he had smiled in a long while – when he heard Mr Robinson notifying Mr Norrell of the unexpected but oh so unsurprising caveat in the Society's response.