The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-06-06
A MATTER OF TEETH
BY HELEN MERRITT.

II
Miss Arabella was all in a iutter.
When a woman, having attained
the age Of forty-five, unmarried and
uncourted, suddenly begins to receive
marked attentions from an eligible
man, she may be pardoned for getting
little bit excited.
And Miss Arabella's life mad con-
tanned so little love, so little personal
interest, that the fact that someone
thought enough OF her to show her
little attentions, bring her little gifts
and defer to her timidly expressed
opinions seemed to bring the dawn Of
new existence.
Mr.. Jenkins had come unostenta-
| tiously into his place at Miss Cross
boarding house two months before. At
first, he had attended strictly to his
| own affairs, but as he was a gentle
man of leisure. this soon grew mo-
notonous. Then, in casting about for
human companionship, he passed over
the younger women and the girls and
began to cultivate an acquaintance
| with Miss Arabella. First II was just
short conversations in the parlor OF
evenings. Then it blossomed into
offerings Of new magazine, bunch
of violets, or box of candy. From
this was short step to an invitation
to go occasionally to the picture show
| in the evening or for a walk In the
nearby park on Sunday afternoon.
And now it was June, and the day
after tomorrow would be Mr.. Jenkins
birthday. And he had invited Miss
Arabella, with an air which there was
no mistaking, to motor with him to
the beach for an evening dinner. The
middle-aged wooer had not yet de-
clared himself, but Arabella was NOR
ally certain that she would come back
from the beach trip an engaged wom-
an. Her heart-even at forty-hve-
thrilled at the prospect.
Alas for human hopes. On the very
morning of the birthday, after Miss
Arabella had timidly presented the gift
she worked for her admirer with her
own fair hands, she bites into a piece
of hard candy taken from box which
Mr.. Jenkins had brought her the eve
ming before, and snap! went the plate
OF her upper teeth. They were beauti-
full, but deceitful teeth. Without them,
Miss Arabella looked every one Of her
forty-five years.
Miss Arabella was in despair. But
she did not ponder long over the stu
alton. Stealing out of the house un-
seen, she fastened to the dentist who
had made the teeth. He agreed to send
the teeth before he closed up that
night. Miss Arabella went back to
Miss Cross.
Miss Arabella put in the afternoon
watching the clock and praying that
the dentist would not fail her. Al
$3.50, the automobile would be at the
door.
At six o'clock, in the tasty new gown
and hat reserved for the occasion, she
heard knock. She opened the door
just enough to permit the dentists
boy to thrust In a small box Their
Miss Arabella breathed again. She
hastily undid the paper, opened the
box, took out the teeth-and almos
collapsed on the spot.
They were not her teeth! They be
longed to q much larger mouth evi
IDENTIFY than Miss Arabella's. Sh,
gazed at them horror-stricken. Thel
she burst into tears.
Strange to say, in Mr.. jenkins room
: similar scene minus the weeping
/ and plus a few harsher words thai
, Mr.. Jenkins usually used-was beinI
' enacted. That very morning. Mr.. Jen
!. kins had broken of q front tooth. H
3 had persuaded-not without difficult,
. his dentist to repair the damage an,
deliver the teeth that night.
! But they were not his teeth.
+ Mr.. Jenkins gave himself up to del
r pair. And Just at that moment tn
chambermaid knocked at his door an
I handed him note.
It was from Miss Arabella. In term
a of the utmost regret it announced tina
Q the writer, for reasons she could nc
a explain, would be unable to help hiI
I celebrate his birthday that evening.
Mr.. Jenkins spent a sleepless nigh
o and the next morning he slipped OF
Q early to the dentist. with somethiu
, little short of murder in his heart
r With the little box which had cause
y all his troubles clasped in his han,
% Mr.. jenkins was laying down the la
at q great rate when the door benin
<, him opened. He turned-and confron
ed Miss Arabella.
!" A little box, the exact counterpa
of the one he held, was clasped in h,
le neatly gloved hand. She gave OF
* despairing looE at Mr.. Jenkins. The
a. faint for want of the food she ha
~ missed at dinner and breakfast, 81
* sank helplessly into a chair.
N Explanations followed, of cours
re Miss Arabella and Mr.. Jenkins Wake
lie home together, both with their we
fitting teeth in place. The dinner wi
SO then and there declared postponed u
ct til the coming evening.
y, And that evening, when the brig
moon revealed an automobile speediI
Il. over the road cityward, it also d
tx closed, on the back seat, q masculil
I'D arm around feminine waist and
Id feminine head on a masculine sho,
rs der.
And suddenly Mr.. Jenkins Sc
l. fondly:
"a How foolish we werel KNOWN
DC we were going to live together all o
Ss lives, what did it matter?"
ne Miss Arabella did not reply. F
the first time in all her starved q
lie stunted forty-five years, she W
dy learning what It meant to be real