His parting with her was quite formal, but that he did not mind, for her colour rose decidedly higher as he approached, and the light in her eyes was like the ray of a diamond.
When he reached the door he found that his brougham from the Quantock Arms, which had been waiting more than an hour, could not be heard of.
That vagrancy of spirit which love induces would not permit him to wait; and, leaving word that the man was to follow him when he returned, he went past the glare of carriage-lamps ranked in the ward, and under the outer arch.

The night was now clear and beautiful, and he strolled along his way full of mysterious elation till the vehicle overtook him, and he got in.
Up to this point Somerset's progress in his suit had been, though incomplete, so uninterrupted, that he almost feared the good chance he enjoyed.

How should it be in a mortal of his calibre to command success with such a sweet woman for long?
He might, indeed, turn out to be one of the singular exceptions which are said to prove rules; but when fortune means to men most good, observes the bard, she looks upon them with a threatening eye.

Somerset would even have been content that a little disapproval of his course should have occurred in some quarter, so as to make his wooing more like ordinary life.

But Paula was not clearly won, and that was drawback sufficient.