Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

It's no secret that there's a man behind the skirts and elegant headgear of this sweet old lady. Neither is it a secret that the man is Jack Benny, or that he's dressed up for his part in "Charley's Aunt." Benny, himself, plugged it on the air. The whole band failed except Betty and that evening Terry looked at the results posted on the bulletin board and shook his head. "They just about cleaned out the rest of the school .too," he said gloomly. "Even with all the new students we'll >nly have two eighty-seven registered. What I can't figure out is how Betty passed." "Oh, that was easy." Betty managed a grin. "After every question I wrote, 'Dr. Bailey is so handsome I just can't think.' " "Well," Terry took her arm, "how's • bout getting back to the College Club ? Flunked or passed, there's still a performance and the broadcast." ^"Keep your chins up," Ozzie smiled. "We'll put everything we've got into the broadcast and we'll draw enough students if we have to advertise 'Mathematics taught with Bingo.' That ought to draw hem in. Maybe we've got something." "Have we?" Harriet asked softly. "Sure." Ozzie looked at her in that -pecial way which always made Betty feel hat she was on the outside looking in it happiness. It was the way she had alvays longed to have Ozzie look at her. 'Even if all these buildings cave in, we've :ot everything anybody could want. We've got each other." "I used to think love talk was sappy," Harriet said then. "But I liked that, very much. Oh, Ozzie, I'm going to hate to ee you leave!" "You won't." Ozzie was looking at her as if he could never stop looking at her again and as if there wasn't anybody there but just the two of them. "When we do 82 leave, you're going along as the hew singer. That's all you'll mean to the band. "For me, well, I got better ideas." Betty couldn't take any more. She turned and walked quickly away and even when she heard Terry's frantic voice calling to her she didn't stop. "Hey, you're going the wrong way !" "I like this way," Betty said, swallowing her tears. "Broadway is this way. And that's where I'm going. Look." She gave him the telegram she had stuffed in her bag when it had arrived that afternoon. "I've got an offer for a big review." Terry whistled ,as he read it. "Three fifty a week is a lot of money," he said then. "And Alexander is a big producer, the biggest they come, even on Broadway. But you can't walk out on Harriet and Ozzie, just when they need you." "Can't I, though!" Betty's little chin lifted. "That's what I thought too, this afternoon. I turned the deal down cold. I was a sucker then." "But the rest of us are flunked out," Terrj said despairingly. "You're the last hope." "Then say good-bye to the last hope," Betty said quietly. "I'm going." "Look, kid." Terry reached for her hand and held it. "Ozzie never said he was in love with you. Did he?" "He never said anything." Betty shook her head. "I just kind of took it for granted." "You can't do that with love," Terry said slowly. "Look, all the time you were taking Ozzie for granted and being wrong, I been kinda doing the same thing about you. Funny, huh'?1' Betty looked at him appalled. "You mt I was giving you as bad as I was gett from Ozzie?" she demanded. "That's right," Terry said grimly. "Well!" Betty looked at him and 5: denly she faltered. "Maybe, well, rn be — " She turned away then. It wasn't ; use. She couldn't give in now and st not with Harriet and Ozzie's happiness ways there to show her what she had li "Well, maybe I'll be seeing you in N York some time," she went on determin ly. "I'll send you a postcard, anyway." But it didn't do any good, going to N York. Once Betty would have thought would be the happiest girl in the wo just being on Broadway. But now, e< though her name was up in lights and :| was mentioned in all the columns li there was a line of stage-door JohnnieJ block long waiting for her every evenil it didn't help at all. For she couldn't s j thinking of them all, and it was straij how it was Terry she thought of mi j She just couldn't forget those last m: utes with him and the way his smile lj twisted and theway his eyes had loci when he knew she was walking out j him and the rest of them. But, of course, the others couldn't krJ that. They only knew that everything li fallen flat since Betty had left. And midnight Lambert College would be tun over to Minnie Sparr to have and to h forever, for now7 that Betty was gone thj weren't any new students enrolling to tl the place of the ones who had been flunk "We want Betty!" the students shou that night as the band began playing < the last time. "Where's Betty Co-Ed?" It was at that moment Betty came But she wasn't alone. An oversize rr chorus strutted behind her as she parai* around the room. "Here's thirty new students for yc she grinned as she stopped at last with whole thirty of them forming a line beh her. "That's the number you need, i it? They kept hanging around the st door and I figured they might as well educated as long as they were wasting tl time anyway." Her heart began doing flip-flops tl for there was Terry coming toward and it was funny the, way she felt, a; her heart had been waiting for this mon: all her life. There were so many thi she wanted to say to him, sweet thi 1 tender things, the sort of things love so are full of. But just seeing him ag knocked her for such a loop1 she coul< think of one of them." "You've come back!" Terry said tl but he . looked as if Heaven had ope right in front of him. Betty found her voice then. She e managed to giggle. "I expected a brigl remark as a welcome," she said. "But rn be we can work up to it." "You mean you're going to stay?" Te asked. Even then, Betty couldn't manage words she really felt. So instead she them under her gay banter. "Aw, you ki how it is," she said. "Once a Co-Ed., ways a Co-Ed. And anyway, I didn't 1 welshing." She waited, but for the fj time Terry's glib, wisecracking ton couldn't find the words it needed. It clearly up to Betty and she knew it. "Hey, Fishface !" she demanded. "A dramatic moment like this, don't I e rate a kiss ?" And then, there was her impudent li mouth lifted to his, only it wasn't inj dent now as Terry's arms closed an her, just trembling and tender and sw And the wisecracks were gone from eyes too and they were as vulnerable only a girl's eyes can be when she kn< her heart has come home at last. PRINTED IN THE U.S. A. BY THE CLNEO PRESS