Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/36

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A Puritan Bohemia

Anne's face, but she turned toward the girl with her usual inscrutable smile.

"Mr. Stanton's teaching has opened a whole new world for me," said Helen bravely. Her face had grown severe over Anne Bradford's flippancy. "I see everything differently now. I never knew before that it is wrong to shut one's life away from poorer people, and to live selfishly with one's own beautiful things. Now, I don't want to keep any part of my life, my aim, or hope, or achievement, to myself."

She stopped, excited and embarrassed.

"The eagerness of the young to give what they have not got is very sweet," thought the guest.

"I am carrying out one of Mr. Stanton's suggestions now," said Helen shyly. "I am going to study, of course, but that isn't what I am most interested in. I have come here in order to find out all about the lives of poor artists who have to struggle for an education. I am going to live with absolutely no luxuries, and am going to try to help them.