Sentence:  And this, too, may have been not unconnected with the gracious influence of the other sex as exhibited in a neighbouring <WSD>athenaeum</WSD>; and was accompanied by a gruesome spate of florid lyrics: some (happily) secret, and some exposed with needless hardihood in a college magazine. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The reading room or library of such an association;  any reading room or library.