Not the only one! I wondered about that, but it seemed to be sort of disregarded/brushed over. At first I expected it to become a thing later, but it didn't.

I like your take on Nelly and Lockwood. I suppose it mostly left me unsure what I'm expected to do with it, as a reader. I noticed it, but was left wondering whether it was going to turn into something, develop, or I'll need to use it later to understand something they said differently (it has a little detective story to it), or whether I was just interpreting it as disturbing cause my paradigms are different from those of the time or the author - I didn't know what to do with it, so I just didn't. Not too familiar with the genre :)