Read "The Venetians" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Lady Hartley, once being reconciled to the inevitable, was full of kindness for her brother's future wife. Eve had seen nothing of London and its gaieties, and as the Hartleys had taken a house in Bruton Street for the season, it seemed only a natural thing to take her up to town with them, and initiate her into some of the pleasures to which her future position would entitle her.
"And when you are married I can present you," she told Eve. "It isn't worth while going through that ordeal till next year. You will have plenty to do between now and midsummer in getting your trousseau ready."