[
 {
  "chunk": 285,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The narrator recalls an old society scandal whose full facts were never told; a letter with a grand crest awaits the investigator.",
  "predicament": "A chronicler decides to reveal what really lay behind an old scandal the gossips have since forgotten."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 286,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The investigator says the letter is professional, from a very highly placed client, and asks the narrator to summarise the newspapers.",
  "predicament": "An investigator cares more for a case's interest than for how grand his new client is."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 287,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The noble client writes asking for an urgent meeting about a painful event at his wedding; the police are already involved.",
  "predicament": "A proud, highly placed man must ask a stranger for help with a humiliating private matter."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 288,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The investigator looks the client up and finds him middle-aged, from a great but impoverished family.",
  "predicament": "An investigator checks the standing of a grand client and finds an old name with little money behind it."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 289,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "A notice announced the client's engagement to the only daughter of a rich foreign mine owner.",
  "predicament": "A grand but poor family announces a match with the daughter of a newly rich outsider."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 290,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "A society paper sneers that the heiress's huge dowry will rescue the impoverished noble family.",
  "predicament": "A marriage between old rank and new money is openly mocked as a bargain that suits both sides."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 291,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The quiet wedding took place, but the bride vanished during the wedding breakfast.",
  "predicament": "A bride vanishes from her own wedding breakfast, leaving her groom and family in public humiliation."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 292,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "A newspaper confirms the family's consternation as rumours spread despite attempts to hush them up.",
  "predicament": "A grand family's efforts to hush up a humiliation fail as the story spreads everywhere."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 293,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "A woman claiming a hold on the groom tried to force her way in; the bride left in a hurry; the intruding woman has been arrested.",
  "predicament": "A former companion of a groom tries to force her way into his wedding, and is suspected when the bride vanishes."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 294,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The arrested woman is an old acquaintance of the groom; the proud, foppish client arrives.",
  "predicament": "A woman with a past claim on a groom is arrested because she made a scene at his wedding."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 295,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The client feels cut to the quick; the investigator refuses to discuss other clients and begins questioning him.",
  "predicament": "A proud man who has been humiliated wants to be sure his helper will keep his secrets."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 296,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The client describes his wife as a wild, fearless woman raised in a mining camp before her father's sudden fortune.",
  "predicament": "A proud man describes a wife from a rougher world, fearless and impulsive, whom he never really understood."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 297,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The bride was cheerful until after the ceremony, when she dropped her bouquet into a pew and grew agitated.",
  "predicament": "A groom dismisses as trivial the one small moment when his bride's manner suddenly changed."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 298,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "She talked privately to her maid about a prior claim, left the breakfast, and was seen walking in the park with the arrested woman.",
  "predicament": "A bride slips away from her own wedding breakfast after a whispered talk with a confidant from her old life."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 299,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The client admits a long, close attachment to the arrested woman, who wrote threatening letters; he doubts she would hurt anyone.",
  "predicament": "A man admits a former companion threatened to make a scene at his wedding, and that he took steps to stop her."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 300,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "He suggests the social strain unbalanced his wife; the investigator says he has solved the case, and the client is sceptical.",
  "predicament": "A proud man can only explain his bride's flight by supposing she lost her mind rather than rejected him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 301,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "A police officer arrives having dragged a lake for the bride's body; the investigator laughs at him.",
  "predicament": "An official sure of a tragedy searches for a body, while the investigator is sure there is none to find."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 302,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The officer produces the wedding dress and ring found in the water, and says they implicate the arrested woman.",
  "predicament": "An official holds evidence he is sure proves a suspect guilty, and scorns a rival's theory as impractical."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 303,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "A note in the dress, signed with initials, seems to prove a lure; the investigator is interested in the hotel bill on the back.",
  "predicament": "An official triumphantly shows proof against his suspect, and misses the clue written on its back."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 304,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The officer storms off; the investigator tells him the bride never existed as the client's wife, and goes out; a lavish supper for five is delivered.",
  "predicament": "An investigator tells a sceptical rival the truth in a riddle, and is taken for a madman."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 305,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The client arrives, humiliated and angry; the investigator asks him to make allowance for a motherless girl.",
  "predicament": "A proud man publicly deserted refuses to make any allowance for the person who deserted him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 306,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The investigator brings in the bride and her companion; she apologises for her treatment of the client.",
  "predicament": "A deserted groom is brought face to face with the bride who left him, and she asks his pardon."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 307,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "She explains she was secretly married years ago to a poor prospector her rich father rejected, and pledged to wait for him.",
  "predicament": "A person who secretly married someone her family forbade must explain it to the one she has since wed."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 308,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "She heard her first husband had been killed, grieved for a year, then accepted the arranged match.",
  "predicament": "A person who believed her first love dead has moved on, and never imagined he might return."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 309,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "At the altar she saw her first husband alive in a pew; he slipped her a note, and she knew her duty was to him.",
  "predicament": "A bride sees her first spouse, long thought dead, alive in the crowd at her second wedding."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 310,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "She slipped away to join him, too ashamed to face the grand guests; he had escaped captivity and followed her.",
  "predicament": "A person whose first spouse returns from the dead runs off with him rather than face the one she has just married."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 311,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "Ashamed, she wanted to vanish; the investigator persuaded them to be open; the client coldly shakes her hand.",
  "predicament": "A deserted spouse is given a full apology, and accepts it only with cold, wounded formality."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 312,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The client refuses to stay for supper; the investigator says the case shows how simple the strangest-seeming affairs can be.",
  "predicament": "A proud man publicly humiliated refuses to join in any celebration of the outcome, and leaves."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 313,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The investigator explains he reasoned the bride saw someone from her past who had a prior claim.",
  "predicament": "An investigator reasons that a bride who changed her mind in minutes must have seen someone from her past."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 314,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "He traced the man through the expensive hotel bill and persuaded the couple to face the client.",
  "predicament": "An investigator finds a runaway couple and persuades them to face the person they wronged."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 315,
  "story": 9,
  "summary": "The investigator asks the narrator to judge the deserted client mercifully, having lost wife and fortune at once.",
  "predicament": "An investigator asks a friend to judge a humiliated man kindly, since he lost everything in an instant."
 }
]