Page 50 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

30 VAN DEN POEL AND RYKEN
all objection to my plan. . . . I handed both the
letter of Father Verhaegen and my statement to
Bishop Boussen.
Some days later I was allowed to call for the reply.
Holding both documents in his hands, the Bishop
came in person to see me.
"Ryken, Ryken," he said kindly, "this whole
affair makes me uneasy. On the one hand the
Jesuits are against you, and probably that Bishop
lrom yonder is also, since he does not answer your
letter. On the other hand I am in doubt of what
God desires of us."
Here I pleaded as well as I could in favor of my
plan, so that the good Bishop said positively: "Go
and see *re Jesuits. Do as they say."
So I went to Ghent and saw Father Wiro, the pro-
vincial. I explained to him my errand and asked
his advice.
"You have treated all this with Father Van de
Kerckhove. I advise you to go and find him once
more. IIe is in Bruges."
I found him, indeed, at the convent of the pauline
Sisters, conducting a retreat. As soon as he saw me,
he asked, "How do things stand?"
"All rests with you," I told him. "your decision
shall see me ofi to America or not."
"To America," he said, adding in a firm voice,
"Yes, go. . . . People nowadays have become so pru-
dent that they do not want to undertake anything."
He asked me whether I had enough money for the
journey.
"Eight hundred francs," I answered. "I want at
least a thousand."
I asked for a letter of introduction to Madame