APPENDIX, 259 



■went directly; and a few minutes afterwards lie 

 returned into the room with a long face, holding in 

 his hand the glass basin empty — water, fish, and 

 all had suddenly gone. I was not obliged to wait 

 long for an explanation. My servant told me that 

 he had taken the fish down stairs when I gave 

 them to him, and had placed them for a moment 

 on the table in the hall while he went to fetch his 

 hat from the hat room — he had not been gone one 

 minute — when he came back and found the basin 

 empty. He quickly found out the culprit; the 

 civil (and in this case too attentive) hall porter, had 

 seen the basin on his table, and thinking it did not 

 look tidy, took it up then and there, deUberately 

 walked to the street-door, and threw out bodily the 

 contents — salmon, trout, charr, salmon- trout, eggs, 

 young ones, and aU — on to the pavement of the 

 street. 



He then went in again, and put the basin on his 

 haU table. Immediately this was reported to me, 

 I did not know whether to be angry or to laugh ; 

 however, " laughing had it." I turned out imme- 

 diately with candles, camel-hair brushes, and 

 spoons, and with the assistance of several gentle- 

 men who happened to come out of the society 

 rooms at the moment, set to work and picked up 

 the gaspiag little wretches one by one. We were 

 all groping about on our hands and knees in the 

 semi-darkness, when a crowd (of course) collected. 

 One of the spectators asked me what I was doing. 

 " Catching salmon," said I. " Catching salmon in 

 Hanover-square," said he, " good gracious ; what 

 next ? " and away he went as fast as his legs would 

 carry him, thinking doubtless he had come upon a 



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