Was it to be in church?”

“Yes, sir, but very quietly
Saviour’s, near King’s
Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St
Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were two of us he
put us both into it and stepped himself into a four-wheeler, which
happened to be the only other cab in the street
We got to the church
first, and when the four-wheeler drove up we waited for him to step
out, but he never did, and when the cabman got down from the box and
looked there was no one there
The cabman said that he could not
imagine what had become of him, for he had seen him get in with his own
eyes
Holmes, and I have never seen or heard
anything since then to throw any light upon what became of him.”

“It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated,” said
Holmes
He was too good and kind to leave me so
It seemed strange talk for a
wedding-morning, but what has happened since gives a meaning to it.”

“Most certainly it does
Your own opinion is, then, that some
unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?”

“Yes, sir
I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he would not
have talked so
And then I think that what he foresaw happened.”

“But you have no notion as to what it could have been?”

“None.”

“One more question
How did your mother take the matter?”

“She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter
again.”

“And your father
Did you tell him?”

“Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had happened, and
that I should hear of Hosmer again
As he said, what interest could
anyone have in bringing me to the doors of the church, and then leaving
me
And yet, what could have happened
Oh, it drives me half-mad to think of it, and I can’t sleep a wink at
night.” She pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to
sob heavily into it
“I shall glance into the case for you,” said Holmes, rising, “and I
have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result
Let the weight
of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind dwell upon it
further
I should like an accurate
description of him and any letters of his which you can spare.”

“I advertised for him in last Saturday’s _Chronicle_,” said she
“Here
is the slip and here are four letters from him.”

“Thank you
31 Lyon Place, Camberwell.”

“Mr
Angel’s address you never had, I understand
Where is your
father’s place of business?”

“He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers of
Fenchurch Street.”

“Thank you
You have made your statement very clearly
You will leave
the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given you
Let
the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it to affect your
life.”

“You are very kind, Mr
He shall find me ready when he comes back.”

For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was something
noble in the simple faith of our visitor which compelled our respect
She laid her little bundle of papers upon the table and went her way,
with a promise to come again whenever she might be summoned
Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips still
pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, and his gaze
directed upward to the ceiling
“Quite an interesting study, that maiden,” he observed
“I found her
more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, is rather
a trite one
You will find parallel cases, if you consult my index, in
Andover in ’77, and there was something of the sort at The Hague last
year
Old as is the idea, however, there were one or two details which
were new to me
But the maiden herself was most instructive.”

“You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite invisible to
me,” I remarked
“Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson
You did not know where to look,
and so you missed all that was important
I can never bring you to
realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails,
or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace
Now, what did you
gather from that woman’s appearance
Describe it.”

“Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a
feather of a brickish red
Her jacket was black, with black beads sewn
upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments
Her dress was
brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little purple plush at
the neck and sleeves
Her gloves were greyish and were worn through at
the right forefinger
She had small round,
hanging gold earrings, and a general air of being fairly well-to-do in
a vulgar, comfortable, easy-going way.”

Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled
“’Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully
You have
really done very well indeed
It is true that you have missed
everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you
have a quick eye for colour
Never trust to general impressions, my
boy, but concentrate yourself upon details
My first glance is always
at a woman’s sleeve
In a man it is perhaps better first to take the
knee of the trouser
As you observe, this woman had plush upon her
sleeves, which is a most useful material for showing traces
