The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 218: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

196 THE COURT OF LONDON Venetia instead of Clara. But now for a surname. What think you of Montgomery? No, that is too long. Plantage- net? No, that would really appear to be assumed. Tre- lawney? Yes, an excellent name, Venetia Trelawney! Now, my dear friend, I have the infinite pleasure of shaking hands with the elegant Miss Venetia Trelawney.”’ Thus speaking, Miss Bathurst suited the action to the word and took the hand of the astonished and bewildered Clara Stanley, who, as a matter of course, had no objection to offer to the proposed substitution of nomenclature, seeing, as she did, that it formed a part of Miss Bathurst’s still mysterious and unfathomable project. By the time this arrangement was made, and Clara Stanley had become in a few minutes transformed into Venetia Trelawney, the car- riage stopped at the house agent’s. There a bargain was at once made. Miss Bathurst haggled not at terms, but paid the requisite premium for the lease, which she ordered to be made out in the name of Venetia Trelawney, so that our heroine all in a moment found herself the lessee of Acacia Cottage. Then the carriage whirled away once more, and this time it was to an upholsterer’s. The immense warehouses of splendid furniture were inspected by the two ladies, and Miss Bathurst was delighted to find that her young companion developed much excellent taste, not- withstanding the secluded life she had led, in expressing her opinion relative to the mode of furnishing the several rooms at Acacia Cottage. The upholsterer received orders to have the cottage furnished throughout within twenty- four hours. Five hundred pounds were paid in advance, with the intimation that the balance should be forthcoming on the completion of the order, and the receipt was made out in the name of Venetia Trelawney. From the upholsterer’s the carriage proceeded to a silver- smith’s hard by, and there a select quantity of plate was chosen, Miss Bathurst still consulting Venetia Trelawney’s taste, and finding it to be really excellent. The bill was paid, the receipt being, as on the former occasion, made out in the name of Miss Trelawney, and the goods were ordered to be sent on the morrow to Acacia Cottage. From the silversmith’s Miss Bathurst and Venetia proceeded to a fashionable jeweller’s in Bond Street, and there our heroine was presented with a beautiful watch and chain, some rings, CORDICLOOO© (Cl)