Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/133

A Puritan Bohemia Yet her wish to know women who toiled for art was being slowly fulfilled. She had watched them in public places, or at their windows in the Square, talking, two and two, as they slowly rocked. Now she learned something of the inner conditions of their life. Some lived in daintily furnished suites; others, in sky-parlours, lunching, perhaps, on doughnuts, two for five cents. All were nomadic, increasingly distrustful of boarding-houses, uncertain where to dine. Tangent-wise they touched the life of the world beyond the Square, going out now and then to dinners or receptions.

Their generous comradeship impressed the girl. They shared one another's hardships, criticised one another's pictures, corrected one another's proof. Helen heard them quarrelling generously at luncheon time over which should have the smaller bit of steak, which should pay the uneven cent. Strong friendships formed a part of the courage with which these women faced the thought of a lonely age, when