"You'll see that that fellow will have success!" exclaimed the chief editor. "Why the devil did we slate him quite so much! Supposing he became a success now! We should cover ourselves with ridicule."
The academician vowed that he should not have any success, went home with a troubled heart, referred to his books and wrote an essay in which he proved that Sellén's art was humbug, and that the Incorruptible had been corrupted.
The Grey Bonnet drew a breath of relief, but immediately afterwards it received a fresh blow.
On the following day the morning papers announced the fact that his Majesty had bought Sellén's "masterly landscape which, for days, had drawn a large public to the Exhibition."
The Grey Bonnet received the full fury of the gale; it was tossed hither and thither, and fluttered like a rag on a pole. Should they veer round or steer ahead? Both paper and critic were involved. The chief editor decided, by order of the managing director, to sacrifice the critic and save the paper. But how was it to be done? In their extremity they remembered Struve. He was a man completely at home in the maze of publicity. He was sent for. The situation was clear to him in a moment, and he promised that in a very few days the barge should be able to tack.
To understand Struve's scheme, it is necessary to know the most important data of his biography. He was a "born student," driven to journalism by sheer poverty. He started his career as editor of the Socialist People's Flag. Next he belonged to the Conservative Peasants' Scourge, but when the latter removed to the provinces with inventory, printing plant and editor, the name was changed into Peasants' Friend, and its politics changed accordingly. Struve was sold to the Red Cap, where his knowledge of all the Conservative tricks stood him in good stead; in the same way his greatest merit in the eyes of the Grey Bonnet was his knowledge of all the secrets of their deadly foe, the Red Cap, and his readiness to abuse his knowledge of them.
Struve began the work of whitewashing by starting a correspondence in the People's Flag; a few lines of this, mentioning the rush of visitors to the Exhibition, were reprinted in the Grey Bonnet. Next there appeared in the Grey Bonnet an attack on the academician; this attack was followed by a few reassuring words signed "The Ed." which read as follows: "Although we never shared the opinion of our art critic with regard to Mr. Sellén's justly praised landscape, yet we cannot altogether agree with the judgment of our respected correspondent; but as, on principle, we open our columns to all opinions, we unhesitatingly printed the above article."
The ice was broken. Struve, who had the reputation of having written on every subject—except cufic coins—now wrote a brilliant critique of Sellén's picture and signed it very characteristically Dixi. The Grey Bonnet was saved; and so, of course, was Sellén; but the latter was of minor importance.