“These words rang like a tolling bell through Ruth’s head. It seemed to
her that her doom was certain. Leonard would be taken from her! She
had a firm conviction—not the less firm because she knew not on what it
was based—that a child, whether legitimate or not, belonged of legal
right to the father. And Leonard, of all children, was the prince and
monarch. Every man’s heart would long to call Leonard “Child!” She had
been too strongly taxed to have much power left her to reason coolly and
dispassionately, just then, even if she had been with any one who could
furnish her with information from which to draw correct conclusions.
The one thought haunted her night and day—”He will take my child away
from me!” In her dreams she saw Leonard borne away into some dim
land, to which she could not follow. Sometimes he sat in a swiftly moving carriage, at his father’s side, and smiled on her as he passed by,
as if going to promised pleasure. At another time he was struggling to
return to her; stretching out his little arms, and crying to her for the help
she could not give. How she got through the days, she did not know; her
body moved about and habitually acted, but her spirit was with her child.” (Chapter 24, Pg. 265)

Ruth is terrified that Leonard will be taken away from her, as she is perceived as a “fallen woman” and thus an unfit mother, therefore she has no right to care for her child, and horrible fantasies run rampant in her head.

Going back to the Custody of Infants act, although Ruth should had custody of her own child, however she does sincerely believe Leonard will be taken from her, and she isn’t completely wrong as in the period a single unwed mother would most likely be viewed as unfit, so how much power did men have in those decisions, even if the men would only be able to provide a lesser experience?