the gory details can be found here: http://fallenlondon.wikia.com/wiki/Beginner’s_Guide but it’s basically all about change points (CP).
It takes 1 CP to bump your menace to 1 and two more CP’s for two and so on…
Perhaps the first bar that you saw was a 5 bar with 5 CP’s in it. The next bar that you saw was a 5 bar with perhaps 2-3 CP’s in it.
Anyways, I hope you get well soon.