Explore "The Turnpike House" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Again and again did Miss Cass wish that she could tell Jennie Brawn the story of the broken link and her position with regard to her father. But she had given her promise, and was forced to hold her tongue. On her part Jennie, always open and honest, felt a trifle embarrassed at the secret understanding with Geoffrey Heron regarding the bill of exchange, it seemed to her too delicate perception to be wrong; for was not the young man her friend's lover? But, like Ruth herself, Jennie had given a promise which could not be broken, and she, too, had to hold her peace. Under these circumstances, both girls were less open with each other than usual, and on this account did not seek one another, as was formerly the case. Jennie made her teaching serve as an excuse; and Ruth took to wandering about the country in the society of her own sad thoughts.
She had promised her father to refrain from further meddling with the Jenner case; but she did not think that this bound her to abstain from visiting the Turnpike House; and she was always finding herself in the neighbourhood of that ill-omened building. It held the secret of a crime.