Authorship has the alteration-itch!

No, I protest against erasure. Read,

My friend!" (she gasps out). "Read and quickly read

'Before us death do part,' what made you mine

And made me yours—the marriage-license here!

Decide if he is like to mend the same!"

And so the lady, white to ghastliness,

Manages somehow to display the page

With left-hand only, while the right retains

The other hand, the young man's,—dreaming-drunk