Del

Del’s reunion with Joe Williams in Norfolk exposes a marriage strained by money, distance, and incompatible expectations. She remains affectionate toward him, but her paid work and war service have built a life that he experiences as exclusion; their final confrontation ends with Joe packing and leaving, without any reconciliation shown in this episode.

Marriage at a Distance

While Joe is broke in Boston, Del’s letters reach him at General Delivery, but he finds them cool in tone. Her concerns, as he understands them, are practical: the rent is difficult to pay, she wants spring clothes, and she fears that people at the office will disapprove if they learn she is married. Joe writes every day and longs to earn enough to travel to Norfolk and see her. Their separation is therefore sustained not only by geography but by unequal circumstances: he has no berth, while she is managing expenses and a public-facing job.

Joe eventually signs on as quartermaster aboard the Callao, expecting a short trip that will let him earn money and return quickly. When he reaches Norfolk, he is anxious because he has not recently received letters from Del. He still has a key to their apartment, but knocks before entering. The disordered rooms and women’s belongings make him imagine that Del has been entertaining friends; these are Joe’s guesses, not a confirmed account of her activities. The scene establishes how little he knows about her daily life before she arrives.

The Reunion and Del’s New Routine

Del comes home laughing with a military lieutenant who is about to go overseas. She has bobbed her hair, embraces Joe, and expresses concern that he looks thin after his ordeal at sea. She introduces the lieutenant, whose presence makes the reunion uneasy: Joe hesitates before greeting him and watches him closely. Del, meanwhile, talks as she tidies the apartment, describing a routine that Joe has not shared. Hilda Thurlow lives with her to help pay the rent; both women work evenings at an American Red Cross canteen, and Del also sells Liberty Bonds. Del speaks of their war work with patriotic enthusiasm and says that Hilda is considering changing her name because it sounds German.

After the lieutenant leaves, Del sits with Joe, asks about his life and whether he has earned his second mate’s ticket, and says she wishes he could make more money. She dislikes having another woman in the apartment, she explains, but needs the arrangement to meet the rent. She drinks some whiskey the lieutenant left behind and turns her attention toward Joe. Hilda, Del says, has a date and will meet her at the canteen. For a time, the reunion gives way to intimacy and mutual happiness. That warmth matters because it shows that the marriage has not become emotionally empty; the difficulty is that affection does not settle the practical and social tensions between them.

Del’s schedule keeps her away from home throughout the day and evening. Joe is often already in bed when she returns, sometimes accompanied by an army officer. He lies awake imagining what may have happened outside the door, and the uncertainty feeds his jealousy. When he confronts Del, she argues that he does not understand her and treats his interference as opposition to her war work. Their quarrels sometimes give way to affectionate reconciliation, but the cycle does not resolve the underlying disagreement: she continues her work and social life, while he remains unsettled by his place in it.

Money, Ambition, and Jealousy

On Sunday mornings, Del is often too tired to get up, so Joe cooks breakfast and they eat together in bed. In these quieter hours she tells him that she is devoted to him and wants him to find a well-paid shore job so she can stop working. She also describes the attention she receives from two wealthier men: Captain Barnes, whose family is said to be rich, wanted her to divorce Joe and marry him, while Mr. Canfield, an executive at the Dupont office, offered her a pearl necklace. Del says she refused the gift because she did not think accepting it was right. Her account presents her as negotiating both financial insecurity and offers of material security, while Joe hears it as a painful reminder of what he cannot provide.

Joe sometimes tries to talk about having children, but Del reacts with an expression that makes him stop. The evidence gives no explanation for her response, and the contrast remains unresolved: Joe imagines a shared future in family terms, while Del’s stated wish is that he earn enough for her not to have to work. Their different hopes add another point of strain to a relationship still capable of tenderness.

Del’s public and social life intensifies Joe’s resentment. He nearly gets a foreman’s job at a shipyard in Newport News, but another applicant takes it. At parties with Del, Hilda, and military men, Joe feels that the others look down on him. He observes Del welcoming attention from uniformed men, and he begins drinking more heavily at a poolroom. His account is colored by jealousy and humiliation; it conveys his growing sense of exclusion, not a complete or independent record of Del’s conduct. The contrast is sharp: Del is moving among wartime social and charitable networks, while Joe is unemployed and unable to find a role on shore.

The Confrontation and Separation

The rupture comes when Joe, after attending a fight and drinking, sees Del walking with another young officer. In the dark, the pair stop at doorways and show affection. Joe waits until a streetlight confirms that the woman is Del, then confronts them and strikes the officer. Del is angry and threatens to have Joe arrested for insulting the uniform and assault. She condemns him as a slacker who is staying home while other men fight overseas. Her accusation turns their private conflict into a dispute about patriotism and masculine duty, even though Joe has himself survived torpedo attacks.

Joe sobers up, helps the officer to his feet, tells Del and the lieutenant to go to hell, and walks away before the officer can respond. He goes directly home, packs his suitcase, and leaves. The departure is the episode’s decisive consequence, but the evidence does not show what Del does afterward or establish that the separation is permanent. Del’s role in Joe’s arc is more complex than that of a simple rival or obstacle: her work, financial pressures, ambitions for a more secure life, and insistence on her own social freedom all remain visible, even as the narrative follows the rupture largely through Joe’s injured and jealous perspective.