The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

Lord Robert St. Simon, a wealthy English aristocrat, is about to marry a beautiful American heiress, Miss Hatty Doran. However, immediately after the wedding ceremony, Hatty mysteriously disappears. She leaves behind her wedding ring, her bouquet, and her groom at the altar. Lord Robert asks Holmes to find his missing bride. Holmes investigates and discovers that Hatty had secretly been married before, to a man named Francis Hay Moulton, a gold prospector whom she believed had died in a mining accident. Francis reappeared just before the wedding, and Hatty, still in love with him, fled with him. The case ends happily: Lord Robert receives an explanation, and Hatty returns to her first husband. Holmes notes that the noble bachelor is actually not unhappy to be single again.