I know that contracts _are_ revoked with the full approval of the Courts and of the public, though I hardly know why.

I will agree; and if we are agreed, you can give or withhold reasons as you please.
Nay, there can be no wrong to me in doing what I entreat you to do.

I shall not suffer long--no, no, I _will_ live, I will be happy"-- her face white to the lips, her streaming tears were not needed to belie the words! "By your love for me, do not let me feel that you are to die--do not keep me in dread to hear that you have died--for me and through me." If it had been in her power to leave me, if one-half of the promised period had not been yet to run, she might have enforced her purpose in despite of all that I could urge;--of reason, of entreaty, of the pleadings of a love in this at least as earnest as her own.

Nay, she would probably have left me, in the hope of exhibiting to the world the appearance of an open quarrel, but for a peculiarity of Martial law.

That law enforces, on the plea of either party, "specific performance" of the marriage contract.