He bungled it considerably, but in the end he succeeded passably well.

He extracted the loose tooth with his bayonet forceps and prepared the roots of the broken one as if for filling, fitting into them a flattened piece of platinum wire to serve as a dowel.

But this was only the beginning; altogether it was a fortnight's work.

Trina came nearly every other day, and passed two, and even three, hours in the chair.
By degrees McTeague's first awkwardness and suspicion vanished entirely.
The two became good friends.

McTeague even arrived at that point where he could work and talk to her at the same time--a thing that had never before been possible for him.
Never until then had McTeague become so well acquainted with a girl of Trina's age.