At this distance, Dinney and little Hunkie were faint
wraiths rather than realities.
Gloria's musings now were tinted with a comfortable impersonality that
robbed them of the power to sting. It was more as if she had recently
read a story full of pathos, whose chief characters were named Hunkie
and Dinney, and whose background was a dreary street. She would tell the
story to the District Nurse and perhaps evoke a sequel to it from her.
"_Dear Miss Winship_: My uncle and aunt spirited me away the next day,
and here I am in this 'Undiscovered Country'! Do you mind if I write
you? You will be too busy to answer. Maybe you won't even have time
to read it! I found out about one of your sick persons that same
day--Dinney's mother. He seemed almost proud that she had consumption,
the poor little boy! He had the baby with him. I never saw such a
perfectly dreadful street. The idea of calling it Pleasant Street!
Somebody ought to climb up and print an 'Un' before it, and even that
wouldn't be bad enough!
"I wish I knew who Rose is. All I do know is that you taught her to be
good to Hunkie--Dinney said so. He said that Rosy lived across the hall,
and that she had eyes like mine!
"Uncle Em has a protracted case here, so we may be here quite a while
longer, but when I get home will you let me go district-visiting
sometime with you? And introduce me to the girl with eyes like mine, and
whose name is Rose--my middle name.
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