With others, as they arrived, she was sportively intimate.

Her bearing had gained a little in maturity during the past half year, but it was still with a blending of _naivete_ and capricious affectation that she wrought her spell.

Her dress was a miracle, and inseparably a part of her; it was impossible to picture her in any serious situation, so entirely was she a child of luxury and frivolous concern.

Exquisite as an artistic product of Society, she affected the imagination not so much by her personal charm as through the perfume of luxury which breathed about her.

Egremont, with his radical tendencies of thought, found himself marvelling as he regarded her; what a life was hers! Compare it with that of some little work-girl in Lambeth, such as he saw in the street--what spaces between those two worlds! Was it possible that this dainty creation, this thing of material omnipotence, would suffer decay of her sweetness and in the end die?
The reason took her side and revolted against law; it would be an outrage if time or mischance laid hold upon her.
Yet there was something in Paula which he did not recognise.