Grace went back to her first supposition.

"It is the only shred of a clew that I have run across yet," she reflected.

"I am going to hang to it and see where it leads.
And to think that perhaps old Jean once knew Ruth's father.

It's unbelievable." "We must start in ten minutes." David's crisp, business-like tones brought her to a realization of her immediate surroundings.
"Ten minutes is long enough for me to say what is on my mind," Grace said eagerly.

Then she began to tell of Ruth, her poverty, and her great wish to know whether her father were dead or alive.