These, like the over-largely lettered signs and placards of the street, escape observation by dint of being excessively obvious; and here the physical oversight is precisely analogous with the moral inapprehension by which the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed those considerations which are too obtrusively and too palpably self-evident.

He paled a little, and sucked his lip, his eyes wandering to the girl, who stood in stolid inapprehension of what was being said.

Camile is naturally disgusted with Paul but he doesn't seem to apprehend her reason—it is this inapprehension of the obvious which creates the tension.

Inapprehension

Meaning

Noun