I was learning fast, but I learned not fast enough to realize then the peril of our position.
There were warnings, but I did not heed them.

For instance, Mrs.
Pertonwaithe and Mrs.Wickson exercised tremendous social power in the university town, and from them emanated the sentiment that I was a too-forward and self-assertive young woman with a mischievous penchant for officiousness and interference in other persons' affairs.

This I thought no more than natural, considering the part I had played in investigating the case of Jackson's arm.

But the effect of such a sentiment, enunciated by two such powerful social arbiters, I underestimated.
True, I noticed a certain aloofness on the part of my general friends, but this I ascribed to the disapproval that was prevalent in my circles of my intended marriage with Ernest.

It was not till some time afterward that Ernest pointed out to me clearly that this general attitude of my class was something more than spontaneous, that behind it were the hidden springs of an organized conduct.