Page 99 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

78 RYKEN KEEPS TRYING
in the other branches. He was constantly going through
the classes to see the method the Brothers adopted, not-
ing down on paper his observations.
;Every
morning after breakfast he went into the teach-
ers' dining room to read his comments on the previous
day and to discuss with the Brothers the difierent Poilll
in'teaching the class and in the discipline of the school."
Brother Ryken laying down the law to his teachers is
one side of the coin; Felix Dujardin laying down the law
to Brother Ryken is the other. In March, 1846, the
creditor was still bearing down. One of those to whom
the debtor appealed for aid was a Miss Sophie Gilles of
Antwerp, w6ose mother had helped him in his second
trip to America, telling her: "On our house and prop'
erty *e are three yearJ in arrears on interest. There is
also a purchase tax of almost 4,000 francs for which I
signed i note payable on demand. The interest due, the
cliarges, and the purchase tax are demanded now by the
creditor. The total amounts to 10,520 francs.
"What to do?
"It is then to you that I address myself in order that
you may deign to lend me this sum without interest."
Miss Gilles did not come to the rescue. The interest
kept on pyramiding. There was no relief in sight'
in the autumn of 1845 when the banker first began
pressing Ryken in earnest, a foundation at Hasselt had
loomed up as the solution but in the spring of 1846 that
avenue of escape was just a memory. Dean Spaas had
chosen the Brothers of the Immaculate Conception.
The Founder had to keep on trying. Through Father
Van Beek he sought an invitation to make a foundation
at,Waalwyk, F{olland, which is adjacent to Elshout. No
invitation carne. The best that Brother Ryken could do
wns to continue to recruit new members for his Congre'
gation from that very Catholic parish. All of these can-