"You'd best let him be for a time, mum," Robins suggested. "He'll come away by-and-by. If it wasn't for he, she wouldn't be ashore now."
Miss Perkins objected extremely, but for the present she had no choice. Though brave enough in a general way, she had a fear of dogs, and she dared not touch him; neither did any one else dare.
So long as Hero was left alone, he remained perfectly passive and gentle, resting his great head against the end of the bolster, and watching with troubled brown eyes everything that was done. To move and lift and attend to his mistress, under those watchful eyes, was at first rather nervous work; and Miss Perkins kept two women helpers to assist her through the ordeal. It soon became evident to her, as it was already evident to others, that Hero entirely understood their benevolent intentions. He interfered in nothing; only he would not be driven away.
"I don't know whatever in the world I'm to do at night," Miss Perkins uttered despairingly. "I wouldn't be left alone with her and that brute, not if I was paid for it ever so! That's a fact."
Unexpectedly Jessie came to the rescue. Jessie was a born lover of animals, dogs especially, and Hero of course knew it in a moment. When she crept into the room after Miss Perkins, her first glance fell, not upon Millie, but upon the massive dark head of Hero; and her first exclamation was a subdued, "O you beauty! You dear dog!"
"Jessie, take care. He'll bite you. Look out."
"Oh dear, no, he won't." Jessie fearlessly patted and soothed Hero, and he leant against her with a confiding air. "You dear creature! Why, your poor paw is all hurt. You must come with me and have it bathed. I wish I could know your name, doggie. Come along with me, and I'll bathe your paw. Come."
She took firm hold of his collar, and, strange to say, Hero offered no resistance. A fresh warning from Miss Perkins was nipped in the bud. Jessie passed out of the room with a face of triumph, leading the dog away.
"Well, I never!" broke simultaneously from Miss Perkins and from the one other woman who still remained.
"Dogs always come to me. They know I love them," Jessie declared.