Philip who had forced the girls to keep their seats saw, in a flash, the new danger, and sprang to avert it.  In a second more those infuriated men would be over the benches and crushing Ruth and Alice under their boots.  He leaped upon the bench in front of them and struck out before him with all his might, felling one man who was rushing on him, and checking for an instant the movement, or rather parting it, and causing it to flow on either side of him.  But it was only for an instant; the pressure behind was too great, and, the next Philip was dashed backwards over the seat.

And yet that instant of arrest had probably saved the girls, for as Philip fell, the orchestra struck up “Yankee Doodle” in the liveliest manner.  The familiar tune caught the ear of the mass, which paused in wonder, and gave the conductor’s voice a chance to be heard—­“It’s a false alarm!”

The tumult was over in a minute, and the next, laughter was heard, and not a few said, “I knew it wasn’t anything.”  “What fools people are at such a time.”

The concert was over, however.  A good many people were hurt, some of them seriously, and among them Philip Sterling was found bent across the seat, insensible, with his left arm hanging limp and a bleeding wound on his head.

When he was carried into the air he revived, and said it was nothing.  A surgeon was called, and it was thought best to drive at once to the Bolton’s, the surgeon supporting Philip, who did not speak the whole way.  His arm was set and his head dressed, and the surgeon said he would come round all right in his mind by morning; he was very weak.  Alice who was not much frightened while the panic lasted in the hall, was very much unnerved by seeing Philip so pale and bloody.  Ruth assisted the surgeon with the utmost coolness and with skillful hands helped to dress Philip’s wounds.  And there was a certain intentness and fierce energy in what she did that might have revealed something to Philip if he had been in his senses.

But he was not, or he would not have murmured “Let Alice do it, she is not too tall.”

It was Ruth’s first case.

CHAPTER, XXXII.

Washington’s delight in his beautiful sister was measureless.  He said that she had always been the queenliest creature in the land, but that she was only commonplace before, compared to what she was now, so extraordinary was the improvement wrought by rich fashionable attire.

“But your criticisms are too full of brotherly partiality to be depended on, Washington.  Other people will judge differently.”

“Indeed they won’t.  You’ll see.  There will never be a woman in Washington that can compare with you.  You’ll be famous within a fortnight, Laura.  Everybody will want to know you.  You wait—­you’ll see.”

Laura wished in her heart that the prophecy might come true; and privately she even believed it might—­for she had brought all the women whom she had seen since she left home under sharp inspection, and the result had not been unsatisfactory to her.