n nor of the service generally. She had not been in the habit of
paying much attention at church, and there was nothing at all striking
or impressive in the preacher's voice or manner, or in the substance of
his discourse, to arrest a languid or preoccupied listener. Jane was
thinking about the Asylum, and about how much or how little it needed
to make people mad--if they were often cured--and if they relapsed--a
great part of the time; and when Miss Rennie asked her how she liked
the sermon, Jane could not tell whether she liked it or not. Mr. and
Mrs. Rennie confessed that Mr. M---- was nothing of a preacher, but he
was a very good man and a private friend. They liked to go to their own
regular parish church, and did not run after celebrated preachers;
though Eliza was a great admirer of eloquence, and was very often
straying from her own place of worship to go with friends and
acquaintances to hear some star or another, quite indifferent as to
whether he were of the Establishment or of the Free Kirk, or of some
other dissenting persuasion.

The conversation at Mr. Rennie's all Sunday afternoon was much more on
churches, sermons, and ministers, than any Jane had ever heard before.
She had never seen anything of the religious world, as it is called,
and felt herself very much behind the company in information. Her
cousin Francis was much better acquainted with the subject; he seemed
to have heard every preacher in Edinburgh, and to know every one of
note in the kingdom.

Mrs. Rennie, apparently in a casual manner, asked Jane to make her
house her home while she remained in Edinburgh; and the invitation was
accepted with the same indifferent tone of voice, which concealed great
anxiety at heart.

"I should like my cousin to accompany me to my unfashionable chapel,"
said Francis. "Will you either join us or excuse us for the evening, as
it is the only opportunity I may have for a long time to take Miss
Melville there? Miss Rennie, you are the only one likely to have
curiosity enough to try a new church."

"I am sorry I cannot go this evening, for I have promised to go to St.
George's, to hear Mr. C----, with Eleanor Watson and her brother. You
had better come with me; it is the last Sunday he is to preach in
Edinburgh," said Miss Rennie.

"You must excuse me this once," said Mr. Hogarth; "I have a great wish
that Miss Melville should hear my minister. At any other time I will be
at your command."

Miss Rennie cou