Edward and Alice accompanied the Bishop and Eleen to Durham, making this their bridal trip, returning by way of London, being absent two months.

Upon their return there was no choice left them but to live with Alice’s parents, at the Bishop’s residence, which was a joy to the parental hearts as well as a great pleasure to the newly-married couple.

CHAPTER XV

TEN YEARS LATER

The Monastery Church has assumed the size and somewhat the character of a cathedral and the good bishop has begun to feel the irksomeness of his accumulating labors.  True, he is able to attend to his episcopal duties, but even they have in many instances been laid upon his gifted son-in-law.  This has been almost entirely true of the University superintendency, so much so, in fact, that McLaren has acquired the title of Dean and is now seldom, addressed by, or spoken of, by any other official title than Dean.

Alice has become quite matronly, and her two boys, Leonidas and Tom, make cheerful the episcopal residence, and enliven the episcopal heart.  The students in the preparatory department speak of her as Mother McLaren, because of her sweet and loving guardianship; and the older students bring their trouble and confidences to her for comfort and advice.  Tom Sparrow, after he graduated, spent three years at Heidelberg and won the degree of Ph.D.  But while these honors came to Tom, and still greater honors had come to McLaren, they were still the same to each other.  To Tom, McLaren, although addressed as “Doctor” by others, was still “my Carl,” and in return the younger man to McLaren was simply “Tom.”  Nothing seemed able to change these relations; nor did the parties most deeply interested desire to change them.

Tom in his travels had been to Durham.  Yes, it turned out that he had spent much of his spare time in that ancient city, and that his home at those visits was usually at the episcopal residence.

Tom and Eleen had met at McLaren’s wedding, and it did not take long for the old, old story to find a place in their lives.  Of course anyone from America who was acquainted with their son was welcomed by the bishop and his wife.  But knowing the intimate relations existing between these two, Tom was made doubly welcome.  Besides this, Tom had developed into a splendid man in both body and mind.  He was six feet high and well proportioned.  He had inherited a healthy constitution, lived a clean and natural life, and was in the best sense a handsome man, one whom in passing you would incline to glance at a second time.  He soon became quite popular at Heidelberg with both lecturers and students, so when he visited Barnard’s Castle, the family of Grandpa Sparrow, received Billy’s son with open arms and hearts.  The unsophisticated old people just sat and looked at him and listened to his words about his father and mother, and the great