Attention That's Fit for a Queen

She has a fondness for stylish stockings, and the paparazzi here, who have an almost adolescent fascination with peeking up women's skirts, have caught her a few times showing a little thigh as she steps out of her car. But even as the photo-bounty on her head soars (as much as $50,000 for an exclusive bikini shot, according to the Times of London), Middleton has confounded the paparazzi with clear eyes even at 3 a.m. and smart clothes that seem unwilling to wrinkle.

"She's made no mistakes at all," says Penny Junor, who has written several books about the royal family, including a biography of Diana. "She seems self-assured. She's got poise and grace. She looks good. She dresses well. She could be a perfect bride for William."

Judith Watson, 41, an intensive-care nurse, says she has a good opinion of the "well-mannered" Middleton. "They seem to act like it's the real thing," she says of the couple. "I don't think body language would lie. For example, in pictures, they look at each other a lot."

Comparisons with Diana are inevitable, but there are many differences. Diana was a shy 19-year-old kindergarten teacher when she became engaged to Charles, the 32-year-old heir to the throne. William and Kate are contemporaries who met at college and later shared a house with two other students. When William was considering dropping out, Kate influenced him to switch to a less demanding course of study -- geography -- and remain in school, according to Robert Jobson, author of a biography called "William's Princess." In Jobson's book, he quotes Middleton as saying William is "lucky to be going out with me," the sort of confidence Diana seemed to come to much later in life.

While Diana endured her parents' messy divorce, Middleton comes from a stable family background, where her parents run the online business together. "She seems to be much more grounded," Junor says.

Royal watchers say palace handlers, using lessons learned from Diana, have given Middleton good advice and that, at least for the moment, she seems like a gift to the royal family.

"They need her," Jobson says. "If the royal family is to be sustained, and if the monarch is to continue being relevant, they need to be relevant to the younger generation."

Three of Queen Elizabeth II's four children have divorced. The saga of Charles and Diana -- and the other lovers crowded into their lives before, during and after their marriage -- battered the royal family. Elizabeth remains one of the most respected and beloved figures in Britain, but many here wonder about the future, especially when it comes to Charles, who is generally regarded as a good-hearted if quirky man.

The queen, who is 80, is showing little sign of slowing down, and Charles is just 58. So it could be decades before William ever ascends to the throne. But William, by virtue of the sudden loss of his hugely popular mother when he was 15 and his largely dignified comportment since then, is a key to keeping the royal popularity ratings afloat.

"The royal family does need some young blood and some glamour," Junor says. "They need stability. They've had an awful lot of upset in the last 20 years."

Still, Junor says, a royal life could pose an extremely difficult challenge even for the most well-grounded person. "I wouldn't be in her shoes for all the tea in China," she says. "It is a life sentence. . . . There must be something hugely seductive about being chosen by the man who will be king. But at her age she has no real understanding of what it will involve. No one could."

Robert Lacey, who wrote a biography of Queen Elizabeth II, notes that just a few blocks away in a London courtroom, a government inquiry is underway into the Paris car-crash death of Diana, who had been chased by aggressive paparazzi just before the 1997 accident.

"I thought the whole world would have learned," Lacey says of the furious attention on Middleton. "It's a rough, tough rite of passage, but she seems to be surviving it well."

Special correspondent Karla Adam contributed to this report.