Rennies, and the cousins went to church with the family. Jane heard
none of the sermon 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.