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Beatrice Wood            5

Walter with his outgoing charm showed interest in every visitor, talked to me at length about the roles I played. He volunteered to coach me and while crowds gathered in the sitting room, he would take me into his study and listen to me recite "Romeo and Juliette" and Mallerme's "L'Apremidi d'un Faun." Walter had made a sensitive translation of the Faun, and coached me in both languages. He took pains pointing out the subtleties of text and the psychological implications.

Only I could not understand the paintings. I made up my mind since I had the priveledge [[privilege]] of being part of this exciting atmosphere, the least I could do was leave my world and enter the one of my erudite friends. How was I going to endure these awful horrors! I particularly disliked a Matisse of an angular woman with lines, it gave my shudders every time I turned in its direction. One evening while Walter and Charles Sheeler were discussing color trends, I forced myself to gaze long at it, and suddenly like a curtain opening, new dimensions of perception came into being and I saw the beauty of the concept. Thus not resisting but being open to new forms, the art of that period began to have meaning.

I left the French Theatre, appeared in the "Yellow Jacket", in which I was a flop, passed in and out of the Theatre Guild, where for a month I shared a dressing room with Edna St. Vincent Millay. She was supposed not to get along with women, but I found her delightful, for maintaining an impersonal relationship, we left each other our men to ourselves.