Page 191 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

170 TOIL AND TROUBLE
could expand into Germany had- not materialized' In
the last 'months of 1856 trb naa been sanguine' On
October 27, he had written Father Devis, Jesuit Rector
at Bonn, whom he looked up to as another Father Van
de Kerci<hove: "It seems to me that we have a special
iall for Germany, for it was on the feast of St' Boniface
that I started thi Congregation, without thinking of the
day. Today most of our Brothers are Germans"'
brrirg ihat November and December his hopes
soared hi"gh. He felt that he had been practically assured
of an inv"itation to manage an orphanage at Dusseldorf
on the Rhine. He had irrunged for Father Van Beek
to accomPany the pioneering- community-- But-as in
1854, wh6n he had ieturned from Louisville to Bruges
confldent that his community would be invited to
Munich, so in 1857 nothing happened at Dusseldorf'
There had been other ufsetting annoyances' He had
found it advisable to demote his vicar and novice-
master, Brother Nicholas, and to replace him with
Brothir Alphonse, a Walloon, who was not nearly so
oliable and tolerant. At the School of Our Lady he
^rtlo*ed Brother Alexius to continue in charge but he
regarded him as annoying. His closest {riend of the old
da:ys, Father Van Beek, dicided to end his days of retire-
*.t t "Het Walletle" and accept the superintendency
"t
of an institute for the deaf and dumb at Antwerp' A
friendship of twenty years had simply oozed away'
The siiuation in Louisville had *orsened' The Father
Superior did not mind the indignation of Bishop Spald-
irJ ut the withdrawal of Brothers Vincent and lgnatius'
b,r't he was wrathful that Brother Peter Alcantara had
exoressed an opinion that the Xaverian Brothers were
rro't tiuittg up to the contract thgf ha{.signed' Brother
aJyten f"it it ut he had bottled-up this self-app9il!9d
*plt.rrnurr. In sending Brother Stephen to Louisville'