At the Drury Lane Theatre in 1869, she played Lady Macbeth opposite Samuel Phelps and Charles Dillon on alternate nights. "Anticipating subsequent actresses, she softened Lady Macbeth, subjugating to conjugal love the sterner traits ordinarily assigned the character." On the same evenings, she doubled in the role of Hecate in Macbeth. She then toured the provinces with a company of her own, playing a series of drawing-room entertainments. Among the characters that she portrayed through song were the bluestocking Miss Grym, the advocate of women's rights, and Jemimer Cobb ("cruelly deceived by the Footman who wore false whiskers"). In February 1870, she was playing Drogan in Genevieve de Brabant in New York. She played the title role in H. B. Farnie's burlesque Little Gil Blas at the Princess's Theatre, London from December 1870. In 1871 she and her husband were living in Liverpool when not on tour; both their occupations were listed as "Musical Artiste" in the census. She was Mistigris in Babil and Bijou by Dion Boucicault at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (1872–73), with music by Hervé and Frederick Clay. In 1877 the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte approached Mrs Paul to play the part of Lady Sangazure in the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Sorcerer, which Carte was producing at the Opera Comique. She accepted on condition that her 24-year-old protégé, Rutland Barrington, was given a part, and he was cast in the role of Dr Daly, the vicar. Her appearance in The Sorcerer proved to be her last London engagement; by this stage in her career her voice was deteriorating. She was engaged to play Cousin Hebe in the next Gilbert and Sullivan production, H.M.S. Pinafore (for which she was to be paid 10 guineas a week "to sing and act as principal contralto during the period of the run"). Gilbert made an effort to write an amusing part for her despite Sullivan's reluctance to use her, but her declining abilities were apparent, and cuts were made to her part. By mid-May 1878, both Gilbert and Sullivan wanted her out of the cast; unhappy with the cuts, Mrs Paul left the production. With only a week to go before opening night, Carte engaged the concert singer Jessie Bond to play the now much smaller role of Cousin Hebe. Meanwhile, Mrs Howard Paul had left her husband in around 1877, as he was having an