Du Maurier and the Goldfish.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 October 1914, Page 8

Dv Maurier and the Goldfish.

While the public has acknowledged its debt to Mr. George Dv Maurier (who died on October 8, 1896) for his delightful sketch "Trilby," yet it is not generally known that there was an old dame in the Latin Quarter of Paris who to to her dying day bore the author a grudge. It so happened that at the time of the offence which caused the lifelong estrangement between the two, Dv Maurier was a boarder in the old lady's house. He occupied ai third story front room, directly beneath which was that of his landlady. She possessed a bowl of goldfish, a source of great pride, which was daily placed just outside the window. It occurred to Dv Maurier, who had a fondness for the piscatorial art, that he could satisfy his longing in that direction at the expense of the fish. Consequently he secured bait and tackle, and whei; .^ the duties of the landlady called -/ her one day from the room he angled for the fish from his window. He was so successful that when the old lady returned, only one out of six fish remained in the jar. When she discovered the perpetrator of what she considered an .unpardonable crime, she ordered him from the house, and for ever afterward harboured hatred against him, although he made many overtures for peace.'