Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-05-02
Euening Story
A MATTER OF TEETH.
BY Helen Merritt.
Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.)

Miss Arabella was all in flutter.
When woman, having attained the
age of forty-five, unmarried and un-
courted, suddenly begins to receive
marked attentions from an eligible
man, she may be pardoned for getting
a little bit excited.
And Miss Arabella's life had con-
tanned so little love, SO little personal
interest, that the fact that some one
thought enough of her to show her lit
tie afternoons, bring her little gifts
and defer to her timidly expressed
opinions seemed to bring the dawn of
new existence.
Mr.. Jenkins had come unostentau-
ously into his place at Miss Cross
boarding house two months before. At
first, he had attended strictly to his
man of leisure, this soon grew mo-
human companionship, he passed over
began to cultivate an acquaintance
with Miss Arabella. First It was just
short conversations in the parlor of
Evenings. Then it blossomed into Of
ferings of q new magazine, a bunch OF
| VI a WA VI CdAuy. I1Ou SAAD
was a 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. BY the
time spring blossomed into summer
the boarders had accepted the incipi-
ent romance, and no one thought OF
intruding on Miss Arabella's corner on
the evenings when she and Mr. Jenk-
ms sat in the parlor, talking little but
beaming at each other beatifically.
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
beach for an evening dinner. The
middle-aged woer had not yet declar-
ed himself, but Arabella was morally
certain that she would come back from
the beach trip an engaged woman. Her
iheart-even at forty-dve-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 =
! piece of hard candy taken from box
which Mr.. Jenkins had brought her
the evening before, and snap! went
the plate Of her upper teeth. They
were beautiful, but deceitful teeth.
Without them, Miss Arabella looked
every one of her forty-five years. With
them, she could easily have passed
for ten years younger.
Miss Arabella was in despair. But
she did not ponder long over the situa-
ton. Stealing out of the house un
seen, she fastened to the dentist who
had made the teeth.
No, declared that autocrat, he
couldn't possibly fix the teeth while
she waited. 1t might be possible to
get them done by s o'clock. He
wouldn't promise.
But he did promise finally. Miss
Arabella's agony moved even his hard
heart. He agreed to send the teeth
before he closed up that night. Miss
Arabella went back to Miss Cross.
| AS she neared the house. she saw
emerging from it the figure of Mr..
Jenkins. He seemed to be in hurry.
Lucky for Miss Arabella that he was.
She lodged quickly into a doorway,
and breathed sigh of relief when
Mr.. Jenkins had passed and she en-
erged undetected.
Miss Arabella lunched on a glass Of
hot milk and sponge biscuit, brought
to her room by the chambermaid. She
put in the afternoon watching the
clock and praying that the dentist
would not fail her. At $50 the auto
mobile would be at the door.
At o'clock, in 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 small box. Then
Miss Arabella breathed again. She
hastily undid the paper, opened the
box, took out the teeth-and almost
collapsed on the spot.
They were not her teeth! They be-
longed to much larger mouth evi.
IDENTIFY than Miss Arabella's. She gaz.
ed at them horro stricken. Then she
burst into tears.
Strange to say, in Mr. Jenkins room
a similar scene-minus the weeping
and plus few harsher words than
Mr. jenkins usually usedwas being