Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/98

90 She was almost gay. There was an intoxicating interest in the life in this new country. Queer things happened in this queer building: theatricals, concerts, art exhibitions. Monks and satyrs and long-trained queens wandered through the corridors on the evenings of masquerade balls. College boys in feminine costumes laughed in corners between the acts of the plays they gave.

Greater than the charm of the social life that Helen watched was the social life she shared. A pleasant feeling of comradeship had grown up between the four people whose paths had crossed in Bohemia. The evenings in the studio when they sat together, discussing life and literature and art gave Helen a cheerful feeling of dissipation. Here Anne Bradford said wise things that Helen did not believe; Mrs. Kent said wise things that Helen did not understand; and Howard Stanton said wise things that