be at St. George s, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen intimate
friends 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
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