"Goin' to leave his property away from his wife! Makin' a new will--eh?
That's it, stamp on a girl when she's down! When you can't win the woman,
keep the cash. Woe is me, Willy, but the wild one rageth!"
Jonas' drawling, nasal, high-pitched sarcasm reached Mazarine's ears and
stung him. He lurched round, and with beady eyes blinking with malice,
said roughly: "The fool is known by his folly."
"You don't need to label yourself, Mr. Mazarine," retorted Jonas with a
grin.
The crowd laughed in approval. The loose lower lip of the Master of
Tralee quivered. The leviathan was being tortured by the little sharks.
Presently the door of the lawyer's office slammed on the street, and
Mazarine proceeded to make a new will, which should leave everything away
from Louise. After he had slowly dictated the terms of the will, with a
glutinous solemnity he said:
"There; that's what comes of breaking the laws of God and man. That's
what a woman loses who doesn't do her duty by the man that can give her
everything, and that's give her everything, while she plays the Jezebel."
"I'll complete this for you, and you can sign it now," remarked the
lawyer evasively, not without shrinking; "but it won't stand as it is, or
as you want it to stand, because Mrs. Mazarine has her legal claims in
spite of it! She's got a wife's dower-rights according to the law. That's
one-third of your property.
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