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Chapter second
For some days after D'Aubignes arrival, Julia devoted herself
to his entertainment, & appeared in the eyes of her old friend
as truly amiable as she was lovely. They were every day in
company & he was delighted to percieve that his own opinion
was corroberated by that of society--

Whenever Julia appear she was treated with
that distinguishing attention, which made her the most conspicuous
personage in the circle & evinced the admiration she
excited. She recieved this universal homage with the
frankness & ease of one who expects it as their due & looks upon it as
of course. Altho' her manner were free from the slightest degree
of pretension or haughtiness, yet there was that perfect self-possession,
which marks a consciousness of pleasing; this security of the
good opinion of all around her, exempted her from that anxiety of the
enchanting power of conversation, for which she was distinguished.

Unconsciously to herself, when D'Aubigne was with her
she had less of that unguarded openness & excessive vivacity which
sometimes bordered on levity & he saw nothing in her
character or disposition, that he would have wished changed.

Mrs. Clifton had some friends who thought differently,
& who if it had been in their power would have thrown
a little more reserve into her manner--a little of that timidity
which betrays uncertainty of success.

Mrs. Edwards, a relation of Clifton's, went still
farther, & when she saw Julia, walking from one crowded room
to another, leaning on the arm of one gentleman & attended by several,
or as was more generally the case saw her the center of a circle of
gentlemen, conversing with as perfect ease "as if," Mrs Edwards' said,
"she was at home with her own family around her, "which
was according to her ideas the extreme of impropriety.

This, D'Aubigne did not consider in the same light, he had
been accustomed to society in which fashion not only authorised, but
almost required this freedom & ease & very different from the mere
precise & formal manners of Philadelphia, to him Mrs Edwards had
formed her ideas of propriety & where as that lady said, "in her time,
the lady never thought of leaving their seats, but sat the live-long evening arranged