Ouida at Home.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 149, 23 June 1894, Page 11

Ouida at Home.

A Realistic Portrait.

The current Californiau magazine t which I don't remember to have seen before, contains (says our London correspondent) a lively, realistic sketch of Mdle. de laßamee (Ouida), at Florence, by a Mr Chas. Robinson. The details are distinctly pereonal. Says Mr Robinson :—Her pallid, masculine face habitually bears a weary, depressed look, and there is a lack-lustre expression about her large grey eyes. The mass of blonde hair which flows loosely over her shoulders has an ashen binge. Ib ia whispered thab her maid spends many hours daily in dressing it, and thab the perfume which ehe uses in her toilet) costs $30 an ounce. She has always lavished money on her wardrobe. She especially prizes a magnificent seb of eablos, tho 'gilt of a wealthy Muscovite admirer. Next in her affections is aa unique Collection of old laces purchased at odd timea whenever she had an opportunity. She has also an immense collection of shoes in every variety of style, all made with nice, artistic eye toward the proper display of her slimly arched instep. Her gloves, too, are all made to order. Ouida loves to shock the conventional world with her manners as,she does to offend ib with her books. Ab home sha drinks brandy and smokes cigarettes and is often rude to* visitors.

An Exquisite Home,

For the past twenty years Ouida has resided oja the outskirts of Florence, in a villa which formerly belonged to one of the Medici. The room in which she works ia truly picturesque. Its wajle are painted with exquisite old Italian frescoes, ftnd inlaid tables laden with pots of flowers (lilies and hyacinths abounding) line tho walls. There is a priceless Persian rug before the hearthstone, where she likes to lie and dreamr-Trapd sometimes to scream a little as a safeby-yalva to her emotions.. She ha 3 a dainty oratory containing a statuo of the Madonna, before which there burns a perpetual light, a' circumstance which, coupled with the fact thab ehe yjr/aa at one time much given to making visits tp the neighbouring Fiesole to argue points of theology, with Father Enderledy, the lafcij head of the Jepuits, gaye rise to the persistent rumour that she contemplated ' going over to Rome.' Between her bpoks'phe leaves an interval of two years, apd the plots in her npyela are thought put in the. course of long country rambles. She dops not, however, gejj through as much work as she used to do. She begins herlabour at five o'clock in tjia mornjng;; but this does pot mean thajb sha really sits down and writes, but simply b^ab eho is ready to ponder over ope of her strange stories; for she takes up her pen only when tho inspiration senses Jior. She never writes at a table, bub sits in a low chair, with an inkstand before her, a blptter on her knee/ and sheets of manuscripb strewn about the floor-reach page .containing very few words, so .extraordinarily large is her handwriting. She .uses a gooaa quill. The Daily Routuste. Ouida is a great walker, and in all her jbramps is invariably accompanied by a retinue of dogs of every size and breed, from her huge St. Bernard down to thab wondrous little Maltese terrier of which sha tells bo many impossible stories. When one of her dogs dies ib is buried with solemn honours. Hers is a familiar figure driving along the Lung Arno in her curious open carriage lined with gold-brocaded satin, the horses harnessed with peculiar black-and-silver trappings. But, although she is often seen thus in public, she eschews general society, living alone with her faithful old maid, who, by the way, was the original of Cigarette in * Under Two Flags.' Ouida never shakes hands ; she declares it to be the most vulgar form of salutation. As soon as she enters a room she makes for a seat. Once seated she will not budge until ehe takes her leave. Anyone who wishes to meet her must play Mahomet to her mountain. No matter who he may bo she never rises or changes her position. The only living woman Ouida envies- ia Rosa Bonheur, while Mary Anderson seems to be an objecb of her hatred. Pub Ouida never liked Americans. When the late Mrs John Bigelow rather forced hereejf upon the author of ' Under Two Flags,' Ouida said she really hated Americans. ' Well, I don't know why you should,' replied Mrs Bigelow, ' they are the only'people who read your shameful books.' Ouida drew the American towards her, saying, ' Why, you musfc be an interesting woman after all, you may come in, 1 For, like Carlyle, sha may be won over by persons who treab her with her own weapons.