And my faith in the infallibility of the paper was shaken
even more one day, when I saw the Leader of the Reactionary Party
himself, Privy Councillor Bluhme, at the house, and sat unnoticed in a
corner, listening to his conversation. He talked a great deal, although,
like the master of the house, he did not allude to his public work. Like
a statesman of the old school, he expressed himself with exquisite
politeness and a certain ceremony. But of the affectation of which
_The Fatherland_ accused him, there was not a trace. What
profoundly impressed me was the Danish the old gentleman spoke, the most
perfect Danish. He told of his travels in India--once upon a time he had
been Governor of Trankebar--and you saw before you the banks of the
Ganges and the white troops of women, streaming down to bathe in the
river, as their religion prescribed.
I never forgot the words with which Bluhme rose to go: "May I borrow the
English blue-books for a few days? There might be something or other
that the newspapers have not thought fit to tell us." I started at the
words. It dawned upon me for the first time, though merely as a remote
possibility, that the Press might purposely and with intent to mislead
keep silence about facts that had a claim upon the attention of the
public.
IX.
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