The awareness that Sheila had had all her life about her father’s apparent "disgrace» brought her up against the necessity constantly to be on her guard.
Could someone please explain the bold part?
Because of her knowledge of her father’s “disgrace”, she always had to be vigilant (e.g. in case it should be mentioned, or she should be asked to explain, or it reflected badly on her, or something like that).
The awareness that Sheila had had all her life about her father’s apparent “disgrace” brought her up against the necessity constantly to be on her guard.
I still don’t understand the bold part.
Dozy, Could you please explain it in different way?
“brought her up against…” = presented/confronted her with…
“the necessity constantly to be on her guard” = the need to be constantly vigilant
Dozy,
Is this sentence OK:
“Her previous bad experience brought her up against the necessity constantly to be on her guard.”?
The idea of ‘presented or confronted with’ does not work in that context.
Her previous bad experiences taught her about the necessity to be constantly on (her) guard.
Is the core of the sentence as following?
The awareness brought her up against the necessity constantly to be on her guard.
The core of the sentence is as I wrote above - her (bad) experiences taught her that it was necessary to be constantly on her guard (constantly watchful/wary/vigilant).
‘brought her up’ refers to her upbringing.
‘against’ in relation to.