He never had a kind word for me, nor a pleasant look.

I couldn't understand it, since it was his business to be on watch and let the occupants of the several flats in at any and all hours of the night.

I could not see why he so distinctly failed to get reconciled to it.
The fact is, I was ignorantly violating, every night, a custom in which he was commercially interested.

I did not suspect this.

No one had told me of the custom, and if I had been left to guess it, it would have taken me a very long time to make a success of it.