Those stately premises, with their clustering lights, their carpeted floors, their polished fittings, were very different from the dark little house in Paternoster Row where Keith first saw what light there was to be seen.

When Isaac grew great and moved further west, the little shop was kept on and devoted to the sale of Bibles, hymn-books and Nonconformist literature.

For Isaac, life was a compromise between the pious Wesleyan he was and the successful tradesman he aspired to be.

There were, in fact, two Rickman's: Rickman's in the City and Rickman's in the Strand.
Rickman's in the Strand bore on its fore-front most unmistakeably the seal of the world; Rickman's in the City was sealed with the Lord's seal.
So that now there was not a single need of the great book-buying, book-loving Public that Rickman's did not provide for and represent.
It pandered to (Isaac said "catered for") the highest and the lowest, the spirit as well as the flesh.

Only Isaac was wise enough to keep the two branches of the business separate and distinct.