"Not she. Just opened her eyes, and that's all. I've got a fine peck of work before me, looking after her. As like as not, she'll be ill and die."
This was not quite consistent with her own observation to the doctor; but few people are consistent all round.
"Oh, I don't believe she will. You'll nurse her so beautifully, she's sure to get well."
The intended compliment fell flat. Miss Perkins wore a lugubrious expression, and was not to be cheered. Having told her tale, however, she no longer opposed Jessie's desire to be up and dressed; and really she had enough to do to require her niece's help.
[CHAPTER VIII]
HERO
IN receiving the new inmate into her home, the big Newfoundland dog was a difficulty upon which Miss Perkins had not counted. She objected to dogs, especially to large ones. They were apt to leave footmarks on a clean doorstep, and to scratch holes in a tidy garden-bed; and Miss Perkins looked upon them as undesirable members of society.
But Hero had saved his mistress' life; and nobody had the heart to keep him from her side, if indeed such keeping were possible. He was gentle as a kitten to everybody, except when they tried to coax him away from the unconscious Mildred; and then his hair rose, and a suggestion of white teeth, with a faint under-ground rumble, warned people to be careful.
Somehow Miss Perkins, in her pity for the woman, had overlooked the dog; and when Millie Pattison, swathed still in the shawls which had been wrapped round her chilled frame after the removal of her own soaked clothes, was laid upon the spare room bed of Periwinkle Cottage, Hero was there also. Bruised and battered by his struggle with the waves, he had not once left his mistress; and he took up his station close beside the bed, as one who had a right to be there.
Miss Perkins protested at once. She couldn't have that beast in the house, not for nothing nor nobody! But remonstrances, commands, exhortations, coaxings, offered pieces of meat, proved all alike unavailing. Hero declined to stir an inch. When a hand was laid on his collar by one of the men who had carried Millie upstairs, there was again a gleam of white ivory and a soft gurgle; and the man beat a quick retreat.