Gloria and Treeless Street | Page 9

opened the door to Gloria's room.
The girl lay smiling among the pillows.
"If you are to be a District Nurse, dear, it might be well for you to get
up to breakfast."
"Well, I'm prepared to go to even that length! You'll hear a bird, auntie,
and simultaneously you'll hear me getting up!"
Gloria was as good as her word. Mrs. McAndrew met her with a smile.
Gloria's face was good to see; it was grave with purpose, but the light
of youth and happiness softly irradiated the gravity. But the studied
simplicity of the girl's costume that morning rather surprised Mrs.
McAndrew as her eyes fell upon it.
Gloria laughed. "Aunt Em, you're unprepared for the grown-up
appearance of the new District Nurse," she said. The neat coils of
brown hair were quite disquieting to Aunt Em. She was not ready for
Gloria to be a woman; her gentle heart misgave her.
"Dear child, let your hair down again--let it down!" she pleaded.
"Auntie! As if--after I've been to all this work and used twenty-three
hairpins! I thought you'd approve of me. I think I look just like a nurse
now. Did you suppose I could be one with my hair the old way? Dear
me! I must dress the part, auntie. The play begins as soon as I've eaten
an egg and two rolls--now why do you suppose nurses always eat an
egg and two rolls for breakfast? But I'm sure they do."
Gloria was in fine spirits. The "play" on the eve of beginning was sure
to be an entertaining one, and for novelty could anything be better? She
meant to go all the rounds with brisk little Miss Winship. She was

prepared to sweep floors and wash faces if it should prove to be in her
part of the play. "I may have to be prompted," she thought, "but you
won't catch me having stage-fright!"
She had sent a note across the street by a maid to prepare the District
Nurse, and that cheerful little person was waiting for her as she tripped
down the McAndrews' doorsteps after her hurried meal.
"Am I late? Did I keep you waiting?" she cried.
"Not more than a piece of a minute. I've been trying to scrape
acquaintance with your beautiful cat, but he is above District Nurses."
"If I had time I'd give him a good scolding. He's got to get used to
nurses if I'm one! Do you hear that, you Old Handsome? Good-by, and
be a good boy while I'm gone!" And Gloria waved her hand
affectionately to the big silver fellow on his silken cushion. She and the
District Nurse walked away together.
"I feel as if I were setting sail for a foreign land," laughed the girl,
daintily tripping along.
"My dear, you are." The voice of Gloria's companion was suddenly
grave. "I don't know as I'm doing right to let you embark--I ought to
send you back to your beautiful home."
"Send me back! No, I'm set on 'sailing.'" In sheer exuberance of spirits
Gloria's laugh bubbled out again, then as quickly stopped. "Oh, you
will think me such a silly! I ought not to laugh, ought I?"
"Yes, keep on all the way, dear; you won't feel like it, I'm afraid,
coming back. The first time I 'came back' do you want to know what I
did?"
_"Cried,"_ Gloria said softly. A new mood was upon her now, and a
gentle solemnity gave her piquant face a new attraction. Gloria's moods
were wont to follow each other with surprising swiftness.

"Yes, I did. I saw so much that I could not help, that it made my heart
ache. Children that needed attention and love and care, and mothers
with tired hands, and wives whose faces wore a hopeless look. Yes, I
cried."
After this the two walked on in silence. But Gloria's eyes were bright
and her breath was coming in quick, strong waves through her red lips.
The picture her companion had given set her tingling, and then came
the thought she had up in the mountains--Couldn't she help?
Seeming to think she had said too much, the District Nurse began
chatting in a cheery way, as though to turn her companion's thoughts
into a different channel. In this mood, the one chatting lightly, the other
listening, they drew near to "Dinney's House." But no sooner had they
entered the neighborhood than they noticed that something exciting
was going on, and shrill voices came to them.
"Something has happened!" cried Miss Winship, hurrying her footsteps.
"I'm afraid someone is hurt."
But then, the District Nurse was "always afraid" in that locality. There
were so many pitfalls where accidents could happen. As they drew near
a boy ran from the crowd toward them.