As the two drew nearer the crowd a chorus of voices greeted them.

"Miss District! Here's Miss District!"

The throng made way for the nurse. Down in the heap of fallen stair
railing lay poor Sal. Immediately Miss Winship was beside her.

Gloria never quite knew what happened the next half hour. It was
mercifully always a bad dream to her. At its end something like order
and quiet reigned in the old house, thanks to the quiet self-command
of the District Nurse. Sal had been removed in the ambulance to the
hospital, the little crowd of women sent back to their work, and the
curious children scattered to their homes. Not until then did the
District Nurse have time to look at Gloria.

"Why, you poor dear! You're white as a sheet! I ought to have thought
how it would make you feel! Come with me up to Rose's room. That's the
quietest place around here. It's a little haven to us all. She's got
Dinney's baby with her now. Since the mother died she's about adopted
it. But Dinney pays for it. Dinney's a brave one!"


They now passed up the stairway, and as they came to the gap in the
railing that had been the ruin of poor Sal, the nurse paused with a look
of anxiety sweeping over her face.

"It mustn't be left in that way," she said in dismay. Then she called,
"Dinney! Is Dinney down there?" as she looked down the stairway.
"Someone tell Dinney to bring me a rope--clothesline will do."