Dr Drummond had known
beforehand what their choice would be. He had brought Mr
Finlay to occupy Knox Church pulpit during his last July
and August vacation, and Mrs Forsyth had reported that
such midsummer congregations she had simply never worshipped
with. Mrs Forsyth was an excellent hand at pressed tongue
and a wonder at knitted counterpanes, but she had not
acquired tact and never would.
CHAPTER VIII
The suggestion that the Reverend Hugh Finlay preached
from the pulpit of Knox Church "better sermons" than its
permanent occupant, would have been justly considered
absurd, and nobody pronounced it. The church was full,
as Mrs Forsyth observed, on these occasions; but there
were many other ways of accounting for that. The Murchisons,
as a family, would have been the last to make such an
admission. The regular attendance might have been, as
much as anything, out of deference to the wishes of the
Doctor himself, who invariably and sternly hoped, in his
last sermon, that no stranger occupying his place would
have to preach to empty pews. He was thinking, of course,
of old Mr Jamieson with whom he occasionally exchanged
and whose effect on the attendance had not failed to
reach him. With regard to Mr Jamieson he was compelled,
in the end, to resort to tactics: he omitted to announce
the Sunday before that his venerable neighbour would
preach, and the congregation.
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