It was easy to see by the newspapers that if ever they had known what it was to bear a good name, that time had gone by.

It was plain that in these latter years they had become familiar with all manner of shameful crimes.

But at the very moment that I was exalting my advantage and joying in it in secret, there was a muddy undercurrent of discomfort "riling" the deeps of my happiness, and that was--the having to hear my name bandied about in familiar connection with those of such people.

I grew more and more disturbed.

Finally I wrote my grandmother about it.