AN ECCENTRIC NOVELIST.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12255, 4 June 1914, Page 2

AN ECCENTRIC NOVELIST.

Genius, we are tokl, has a right to eccentricity, but few men and women whose cleverness lias made their names household words ever gratified their, curious whims to such an extent as the famous novelist, "Ouida," judging from the "Memoir" of the novelist by Elizabeth Lee. "Ouida" loved to assume the air and graces of a great lady. She established herself in a great villa outside Florence, and loved to drive in that city in a little victoria lined with oyster-grey satin, drawn by chestnut ponies, with bells and bunches of pheasants' feathers stuck in their harness. Later on she drove a pair of white ponies, and the carriage was lined with white, satin.

Matching in colours \vn« one of the novelist's greatest fads. Her shoes were satin to match her gown, and she wore the. same, footgear in garden or meadow. She usually made her mother dress in black by way of contrast, and liked to receive guest l ' dressed in white satin' seated in a reel satin arm-chair, her feet stretched out to show their beautiful proportions. There appears to have been no limit to "OnidaV extravagances in regard to, dress. She not only had her gowns ma.de by Worth, the great Paris dressmaker.- of the period, but if is said by those who knew her that she always dressed to fit the heroine she was depicting at the time —while muslin if a peasant girl, white satin for a great lady. She appears to have treated women, except her few intimate friends, with ?cant courtesy, and could be very rude on occasions. She rarely dined oiit on account of her delicate health, and when she did her hosts found her very difficult to deal with. She thought nothing of sulking the whole evening if she met someone whom she did not desire to meet, while, if she felt bored, she would insist on going upstairs to the drawing-room before dinner was ended. There she would Jie on a sofa, ring for the servant, and ask her if her carriage had come, and if it had not she remained silent on the sofa until its arrival.