Ruth lost the point entirely.

The doctor expected her to seize upon the subtle inference that there was something furtive, even criminal, in the manner the patient set this obligation upon humanity at large, to look after him in the event of his death.

The idea of anything criminal never entered her thoughts.

Any man might have endeavoured to protect himself in this fashion, a man with no one to care, with an unnameable terror at the thought (as if it mattered!) of being buried in alien earth, far from the familiar places he loved.
Close upon this came another thought.

She had no place she loved.
In all this world there was no sacred ground that said to her: Return! She was of all human beings the most lonely.