This was only half conscious--she was able to formulate it later -- but it influenced her sincere and vigorous disdain of the town correctively, and we may believe that it operated to except her father and mother from the general wreck of her opinion to a greater extent than any more ordinary feeling did.

It was not in the least a sentiment of affection for her birthplace; if she could have chosen she would very much have preferred to be born somewhere else.

It was simply an important qualifying circumstance.
Her actual and her ideal self, her most mysterious and interesting self, had originated in the air and the opportunities of Sparta.

Sparta had even done her the service of showing her that she was unusual, by contrast, and Elfrida felt that she ought to be thankful to somebody or something for being as unusual as she was.

She had had a comfortable, spoiled feeling of gratitude for it before she went to Philadelphia, which had developed in the meantime into a shudder at the mere thought of what it meant to be an ordinary person.