'There--the depth of that cavity is tremendous, and it is not geometrical, as in later work.' He drew her unresisting fingers from the capital to the arch, and laid them in the little trench as before.
She allowed them to rest quietly there till he relinquished them.

'Thank you,' she then said, withdrawing her hand, brushing the dust from her finger-tips, and putting on her glove.
Her imperception of his feeling was the very sublimity of maiden innocence if it were real; if not, well, the coquetry was no great sin.
'Mr.Somerset, will you allow me to have the Greek court I mentioned ?' she asked tentatively, after a long break in their discourse, as she scanned the green stones along the base of the arcade, with a conjectural countenance as to his reply.
'Will your own feeling for the genius of the place allow you ?' 'I am not a mediaevalist: I am an eclectic.' 'You don't dislike your own house on that account.' 'I did at first--I don't so much now....

I should love it, and adore every stone, and think feudalism the only true romance of life, if--' 'What ?' 'If I were a De Stancy, and the castle the long home of my forefathers.' Somerset was a little surprised at the avowal: the minister's words on the effects of her new environment recurred to his mind.

'Miss De Stancy doesn't think so,' he said.

'She cares nothing about those things.' Paula now turned to him: hitherto her remarks had been sparingly spoken, her eyes being directed elsewhere: 'Yes, that is very strange, is it not ?' she said.