and it even occurs to ruby that , having done all these things for all these different people , for years , perhaps not very willingly , and not really out of the milk of human kindness , but just because she thinks she ought to , ruth has become hardened toward her friends just a little bit , has gradually become more and more reluctant to perform these charitable tasks , has developed and elaborated more and more reasons for putting them off , even when they might really be necessary ; so that when , for once , ruby actually needs her , its actually this one time that she wont show up .