Sentence:  In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, [...], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my <WSD>attention</WSD> in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Mental focus.