AN
INSIDE STORY
275
Gabriel. He was also interested in the subject, but not with Paddles'
intensity.
"I figured it out by thinking about what she did almost every
time I was going to kiss her: she went to the bathroom to brush
her teeth! Now, how about that? It had never occurred to her that
she could have had trench mouth and I would not have been any
the less eager to kiss her. But she did not know that, because she
did not know about being in love, and because she did not like
herself very much."
"Brother, you have had it bad," said Gabriel. "Have a double
Scotch on the house because
I
think you
still
have it bad."
Tobias was silent. Paddles regarded him with care and sym–
pathy. The juke box, silent
all
evening, began to play a famous
waltz by Johann Strauss.
"Johann Strauss was a liar," said Tobias in a low voice.
"What's that you just said?" asked Gabriel.
"Onan's house was on fire," said Tobias idly. "Onan's spouse
was his lyre." He was thinking of the
girl
who brushed her teeth
with so much awareness of her physical being's possible foulness.
"I still don't get it," said Gabriel. "This double talk stopped be–
ing funny ten years ago."
"Greater love hath Onan," said Tobias heedlessly.
"Say," said Paddles, more interested than ever, "would you mind
if
I asked you how this dame was in the hay?"
"She was very active and vigorous," said Tobias. "She was de–
termined to prove that she was better than every other girl in the
hay and in every other way. And when we finished, she jumped
up immediately to get Kleenex or paper napkins because she was
afraid the bedsheets would get soiled."
"Emma thinks about her teeth too," said Gabriel thoughtfully,
"she is always going to the dentist to get them fixed."
"Teeth are important," said Tobias carefully, "and toothbrushes
are
also
important. I read something interesting by a Viennese doc–
tor once about the unreasonable feelings which human beings have
when it is a question of a toothbrush or the same kind of thing.
He said that it was strange how so many human beings do not like
to use another person's toothbrush: do they think that their own
toothbrush is cleaner than another person's? he said, or he said
something like that-"
