Ruth padded back to Miss Hester's room, found the shawl and trailed back with the fringe tickling her bare ankles. She climbed into Miss Hester's lap and stuck her feet out toward the stove in which a fire still burned.
"I want to know first," she began, "how that man knows he is my uncle."
"He was attracted to you by your likeness to your father and the name of Ruth. When he left you, he went back to the hotel and inquired into your history. Mrs. Green of course knew all about you and gave him a full account of how you came to be my little girl."
"When she told him that he ought to have been satisfied," Ruth commented. "He oughtn't to have come here bothering us. What did he do it for, when he knew I truly belonged to you?"
"Because he had promised your father to try to find you and your mother. He traced you both to Elder Street and learned that your mother had died there and that you had been taken away."
"What's become of my father, and why didn't he come back to us?" Ruth spoke resentfully.
"He meant to come, your uncle said, but he had a hard time of it and was not one to be very successful in this world. He was taken ill out west and, when he knew he could not live, he sent word to your uncle who went out and stayed with him till he died. Before that, your father had written to your mother but his letter was returned. It was just before he died that your uncle promised to find you and your mother, and if either were living to do all he could for you."
"Your uncle said that up to that time he had no idea that his brother had left home. He had not heard from him for two or three years, for they lived quite far apart, and your uncle, being a successful man, had no patience with your father who was unsuccessful. He felt that your father had been extravagant in spending all the money which had been left him by his father, and told him he must shift for himself. Do you understand all this, Ruth?"
"Yes, I think so. Mother said father wasn't a bad man."
"No, I don't think he was, only foolish and extravagant, with no idea of business. Instead of living simply on the income from his money, he lived beyond his means, invested his money foolishly and lost it all. Then with the idea that he could make another fortune, he left home only to become worse off and to die among strangers."