Mrs Forsyth had mentioned at breakfast that they had ranges with exactly the improvement she wanted at Thompson's, but the minister was deaf to the hint.

Thompson was a Congregationalist and, improvement or no improvement, it wasn't likely that Dr Drummond was going "outside the congregation" for anything he required.

It would have been on a par with a wandering tendency in his flock, upon which he systematically frowned.

He was as great an autocrat in this as the rector of any country parish in England undermined by Dissent; but his sense of obligation worked unfailingly both ways.
John Murchison had not said much about the sermon; it wasn't his way, and Dr Drummond knew it.

"You gave us a good sermon last night, Doctor"; not much more than that, and "I noticed the Milburns there; we don't often get Episcopalians"; and again, "The Wilcoxes"-- Thomas Wilcox, wholesale grocer, was the chief prop of St Andrew's--"were sitting just in front of us.