At last she saw that her entreaties were vain , and agreed to marry him , as he wished . And they went together to the palace , where Mogarzea was still waiting for him , and the marriage was celebrated by the emperor himself . But every May they returned to the Milk Lake , they and their children , and bathed in its waters . STAVE ONE MARLEY 'S GHOST Marley was dead , to begin with . There is no doubt whatever about that . The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman , the clerk , the undertaker , and the chief mourner . Scrooge signed it . And Scrooge 's name was good upon ` Change for anything he chose to put his hand to . Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail . Mind ! I do n't mean to say that I know , of my own knowledge , what there is particularly dead about a door-nail . I might have been inclined , myself , to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade . But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile ; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it , or the Country 's done for . You will , therefore , permit me to repeat , emphatically , that Marley was as dead as a door-nail . Scrooge knew he was dead ? Of course he did . How could it be otherwise ? Scrooge and he were partners for I do n't know how many years . Scrooge was his sole executor , his sole administrator , his sole assign , his sole residuary legatee , his sole friend , and sole mourner . And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event , but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral , and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain .
The mention of Marley 's funeral brings me back XXXXX the point I started from .
At Of about as by for in that to upon