Henry James: Paste

"Charlotte had now in her hand a small bag of faded, figured silk- one of those antique conveniences that speak to us, in the terms of evaporated camphor and lavender, of the part they have played in some personal history; but though she had for the first time drawn the string, she looked much more at the young man than at the questionable treasure it appeared to contain.  'I shall like them. They're all I have.'"

James sentences are extremely long and show tons of description.  His description of the antique piece is almost exhaustive.  faded, figure silk, antique conveniences, evaporated camphor and lavender, personal history,  and THEN Charlotte draws the sting of the bag that was mentioned in the beginning of the sentence.   Then the focus moves from the focus of the antique piece to the focus of the man.  The man becomes the most important detail in this passage, why spend so much time describing the rest.  is this a form of suspense?   I'm not sure it is.  i find this to be quite confusing, it is not clear.  James is almost trying to distract the reader and then suddenly throw in one last detail, not really describing it, and making it the main point.  

"she looked much more at the young man than at the questionable treasure it appeared to contain." 

 This sentence almost says, forget about the description I used earlier because this is what is the main point.  It's ironic, but it's a pretty great technique.  We can see how James is manipulating the reader.