 You are about to hear a romantic drama, Trapeze Girl, from Street and Smith's Love Story magazine, featuring the love story girl in the role of Paula DeHamon. The place is Circusville, California, winter quarters of Doyle and Black's greater show and menagerie. The time is spring, Circusville is humming with activity. Red and gold wagons are being painted and repaired, animals are being groomed and put through their faces. And in the practice sheds, performers are limbering up in preparation for a summer on the road. Now as we watch all this colorful bustle, the Los Angeles bust drives up. It's only passenger, blue-eyed, black-haired, Paula DeHamon, Trapeze Girl, rejoining the circus again after a year with another show. And the step, miss. Now here's your bag. Sorry I can't carry it to where you want it parked. Oh, thank you. That's all right. I can manage. Okay. Good to be back. Hey, everybody. Well, you had look who just rolled in on the Los Angeles bust. I've got lunch ready for you. I thought you'd be hungry. Starting to take care of me already, hmm? Why not? Come on, we'll eat in the old boxcar. Boxcar? Sure. Thanks to the boss. I've been living there all winter. Oh! Now come along, child. Lunch is on the stove. And you've all summered and gossiped with this mom. Come on. Here, Paula, I have some more chicken. Oh, I can't, mom, bulging at the seams now. Well, you're certainly the world's top spotter when it comes to cooking. That's what Noreen always used to say. Yes, I know. Oh, I'm sorry, Paula. I didn't mean to mention Noreen. Oh, it's all right. Sooner or later, I've got to talk about her and it might as well be now. Well, probably do your good to get it off your chest. I'm afraid it's going to seem strange to you, Paula, child, dressing with someone else after having Noreen next to you for so many seasons. We've got side by side for five years. Beginning the year Noreen came on the show. Our trunks in the same spot every day. Oh, by the way, that reminds me, I've gotten Noreen's trunk here waiting for you. Waiting for me? Yes. She said in the ambulance on her way to the hospital to tell you that it was curtains for her trunk and everything and it should go to you. That was the last time she spoke. Oh, well, I'll be looking into it one of these days. I don't know, but he's touched it since the day she fell. How did it happen, ma? I never could understand it, or fall in like that, I mean. It didn't seem reasonable. She'd swung past the danger point and was almost up to her safety perch. But Noreen was always perfect on the timing and balance. Yes, I know, and that's why I can't... Ma, is there something I haven't told me about Noreen? No, that is nothing definite. Only, well, there's a lot of people who seem to think Noreen had something on her mind. Go on. Well, most of them had an idea. She was in love with Bart Lawler, and he was trying to lure down. Bart Lawler? Yes, that's right. You don't know him, do you? Ma. He joined the show after you left. He and Noreen had been going together, but I don't think Bart was ever in love with her. Oh, poor Noreen. Ma, you don't really mean you think Noreen... It was suicide? Well, I don't know what to think. Maybe she was so worried about this affair with Bart that she wasn't fit to be performing that night. If it was that, if Bart Lawler made her unhappy enough for that, I'll do my best to punish him. Child, how are you going to know? I can't tell yet, but I'll find out somehow. What shed is he rehearsing in? Shed number three. Now, Paula, you ain't going to do anything foolish, because after all, we don't know... I don't know what I'm going to do, Ma. First, I'm going to meet Bart Lawler. Having a good time? Well, Mr. Lawler, thank you. Oh, don't call me Mr. Lawler. Call me Bart. It really isn't as if we were complete strangers, you know? Well, after all, we just met this afternoon. Did you ever bring Noreen out here to the Grove? Oh, that's right. You knew her, didn't you? Yes. Come to think of it, Noreen spoke of you often. I felt as though I knew you the moment I caught sight of you standing there this afternoon in the shed watching my kid brother practice. Did you really? I believe you're blushing. Paula, you're so beautiful you'd set any man crazy. You mind my saying it? Of course I don't mind. I love it. Well, Paula, I... Oh, isn't this your brother coming across the loss? Yeah, it would be. There are moments when I can sense the advantages of being an only child. Hello, folks. You mind if I join you? Come on, Bart, shell out the introductions. Mr. Haven, this is my younger brother Ned. Ned, this is Paula. How do you do, Ned? How do you do? Well, I guess Bart thought he was going to have you all to himself this evening. How does he get that way? I should have known better, I suppose. Sure. Hey, Paula, Bart used to get like this last year when he was rushing Noreen. Just snatched her up and away they'd go. Oh. You talk too much. Not a bit of it. Hey, Paula, I want you to know I'm different. I can undoubtedly recommend me to you. Ned, come over here a minute. I want to speak to you. Excuse me, Paula. Why can't you speak to me here? Because I want to tell you a few things for your own good, and I can't do it in front of a lady. Oh, all right. I'll be right back, Paula. Don't get discouraged. Bart Lawler isn't even sorry about Noreen. If he were, it would show in his eyes his voice. He idolizes that brother of his. That's the way to hurt him, through Ned. Gosh, Paula, it was swell of you to run away from practice and come to the beach today. Oh, think nothing of it, Ned. The pleasure is mine. Paula, I think you're swell. I haven't been so crazy about anybody since I was a school kid and had blonde fever, aren't I? Oh, flatterer. Well, not that I don't like girls. I do, but you're different. I bet Bart judges that a dozen times a day. Bart and a lot of others. You know, Ned Bart certainly thinks a lot of you. You've got to lose his right arm and have anything happen to you. Yeah, I guess so. But, well, he naturally had a fit when I told him I was knocking off for the day to take you out here. You know, he's been sore at me anyhow because he can't get me started and earnest on practicing the triple. Pretty important to him, isn't it? Sure. You see, we've been tumblers in our family for over 200 years and usually we've been good ones. Bart's an ace himself. I guess he thinks I'm a coward because I don't want to take a chance on breaking my neck. Why would I live and have some fun? Of course you do, Ned. I know just how you feel. Gosh, Paula, you're marvelous. Oh, Paula, I... Come on, it's time for us to go up. Come on out on the veranda, Paula. But Bart, Ned has the next stand. It blazes with Ned. Come on, I want to talk to you. Oh, all right. What do you want to talk to me about? Listen, Paula, I don't want to seem abrupt. But Ned has come to a critical time in his career. Bart Lawler, what are you talking about? He knows perfectly well. An unhappy love affair might ruin him for good. Oh, I see, and you think I'm incapable of making him happy. I don't understand you, Paula. If I thought you loved Ned and would make him happy, I'd never interfere, but you don't love him. How do you know I don't? I'm sure of it. Why you're running around with him, I don't know. You're keeping him nervous and jealous and overwrought. He's so busy worrying about you that he's unfit for his work. Well, I don't see how I can help that, and I don't see why you had to follow me here tonight. I had to come, Paula. I had to see you and point out to you that the show opens two weeks from the night and that I'll be going into my act with a brother suffering from nervous jitters that may cost him his life. It seems to me if your brother has no more control over himself than that, he shouldn't follow the tumbling game. Perhaps he doesn't belong in show business. That's not quite true, Paula. Ned's high strong just now. He's young. Some day if I can save him, he'll be one of the greatest of the Lawlers. I've been working a long time for that. I'm still working for it. Then my life's ambition. So now, I guess you understand. Understand? Yes, I think I understand. Paula, dearest, why are you torturing? Tell me. Let me go. So this is why you wanted to have Paula for yourself. Take it easy now. Yeah, you're a dirty double-crosser. Put up your face. Don't lose your head. Let's talk this over. Oh, yeah? Well, that's your idea. Mark, look out. Ned, don't make me hit you. Oh, my side. My side. What's the matter? I don't know. Don't worry, kid. We'll get you away from here and everything's going to be all right. See? Paula, go get a doctor. Hello, ma. Where have you been? To the hospital. Oh, any news? Ned. I expected to find him real sick. Not 17 hours since they took out that appendix of his and wanted to see. Him holding hands with the cutest blue-eyed doll you ever want to rest your eyes on. Oh. Who? School Day sweetheart of Ned. Mark wired her and she flew right down from San Francisco. She and Ned are going to get hit soon as he's up and about. I'm glad. You don't seem awful cut up about it. Paula. What? I saw him. What did he say? Nothing. He wouldn't speak to me. He just looks terrible. Dark circles under his eyes. I don't think he's well. There's something on his mind. Good. I hope he's satisfied. I hate him. I hate him. I'm never going to see him again. My child, what do you mean? Mom, leave him the show. I can't stand this. He invert law every day after what he did to Noreen. I've paid him back now and I'm quitting. What do you think? The only thing to do, I'm leaving today. Well, all right. You know best, but you can't leave until you've done one thing. What's that? You've got to look through Noreen's trunk here. I've been keeping it for you, and I think you're... All right. Give me the key. I'll do it now and get it over with. I hear. Oh, I wish you'd sink it over, Paula, before you do anything rash. I mean, don't just jump into something before you... Mom. Well, what's the matter? Look, a note addressed to me in Noreen's handwriting. It was here on the top of the things in the trunk. Oh, read it. Read it. I can't, my... You'll read it to me. Well, here, here, give it to me. Here. Well, she says here, Paula, darling, I'm pretty low tonight, so I'll take it out on you because you'll probably never see what I'm scribbling here. It's like this. See, I've been having awful headaches and I've seen the doc, and he gives me the glad news that I've got a kind of growth back of my eyes and he wants to cut it out, only it's too close to the brain. And he says if it isn't cut out, this growth might cut off my sight and meet up on the high wire at the time, maybe. Oh, wow. I haven't told anybody, Paula, but good old Bart knows I'm low about something and he's being grand to me. If I could be serious about any man, I'd be cuckoo about Bart. His friendship has kept me from going crazy lately. It goes on to say, well, that's about all right now, Paula, old pal. The doc thinks I shouldn't work anymore, but I'm going to, just the same. I've got to find out, Paula, or I'll go mad. Go on, ma. That's all. Let her stop there, calm the sudden. Maybe she meant to finish it after the show. She never came back. For no reason. Oh, ma. I've been such a fool. Wanted to see me? Please, Bart, if you've time for me. What is it, dear? Please forgive me for everything, Bart. I'm so sorry and ashamed, but I can explain... No explanations are necessary. I love you is all I want to hear. How about it? Oh, Bart, I do love you. Bart, I do love you so. You have been listening to a romance featuring the Love Story Girl and presented with the permission of Street Dan Smith publishers of Love Story Magazine. Listen for the Love Story Girl in a new romance next week.