He was slender, tall, and unprepossessing, and instantly created a bad impression.
This news came to Ruth through her father, for she had not visited town since she had gone there to help Mrs.Lawler care for her son.

She felt that she did not dare to leave the cabin.

For one night, after her father had acted strangely, he got up suddenly and went out of the door.
And after a while, growing suspicious, she blew out the light and stepped softly outside, to see him, at a little distance from the house, talking with Singleton.
That incident had occurred shortly after Lawler had departed for the capital to assume his duties as governor.

She suspected her father had talked with Singleton since, though she had never seen them together from that time until now.
Lawler had been gone a month.

She had heard through various mediums--mostly from cowboys from nearby ranches who occasionally passed the cabin--that Lawler was "making good"-- in the vernacular of the cowpuncher; and "makin' them all set up an' take notice." Those terms, of course, would seem to indicate that Lawler was a good governor and that he was attracting attention by the quality of his administration.
But it seemed that more than a month had passed since Lawler had gone to the capital.