Here, Burgess maintained an active social life with his many acquaintances, both regular and casual; Goronwy Rees likened the Bentinck Street ambience to that of a French farce: "Bedroom doors opened and shut, strange faces appeared and disappeared down the stairs where they passed some new visitor coming up..." This account was disputed by Blunt, who claimed that such casual comings and goings were contrary to house rules, since they would have disrupted other tenants' sleep.