Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, The The. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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.