would be invited, and that the party would return to the furnished house at

Lancaster Gate which has been taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days

later—that is, on Wednesday last—there is a curt announcement that

the wedding had taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord

Backwater’s place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices which

appeared before the disappearance of the bride.”


“Before the what?” asked Holmes with a start.


“The vanishing of the lady.”


“When did she vanish, then?”


“At the wedding breakfast.”


“Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite dramatic,

in fact.”


“Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common.”


“They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during the

honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt as this. Pray let

me have the details.”


“I warn you that they are very incomplete.”


“Perhaps we may make them less so.”


“Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a morning

paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is headed, ‘Singular

Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding’:


“‘The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into

the greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which have taken

place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as shortly announced in the

papers of yesterday, occurred on the previous morning; but it is only now that

it has been possible to confirm the strange rumours which have been so

persistently floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush

the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it that no good

purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what is a common subject for

conversation.


“‘The ceremony, which was performed at St. George’s,

Hanover Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the father of