Eveline Hutchins and Freddy Seargeant

Eveline Hutchins and Freddy Seargeant’s relationship grows out of shared artistic ambition and late-night companionship, but never reaches the certainty Freddy wants. He is deeply in love with her; she cares for him, desires closeness, and even imagines a future together, yet remains unable to say that she loves him. Their near-intimacy is interrupted first by her memory of Dirk McArthur and then by family illness, leaving their connection poised between artistic partnership and an unresolved courtship.

Artistic Partnership and Unequal Courtship

In Chicago, Eveline’s decorating business with Eleanor Stoddard struggled to earn what she had hoped, though it brought the partners into lively social and artistic circles. Eveline continued to believe in the young men around her, even when Eleanor considered the men she collected poor prospects and liabilities to the business. Freddy had been a nuisance and had needed loans from Eveline more than once. When he finally brought a production of Tess of the d’Urbervilles to New York, Eveline felt triumphant on his behalf and nearly fell in love with him. That surge of pride did not settle her feelings: she found him dear and was very fond of him, but could not imagine marrying him and did not feel swept off her feet.

Their closeness took shape in conversation as much as in courtship. Eveline liked sitting up late with Freddy over Rhine wine and seltzer at the Brevoort Café, watching him through cigarette smoke and wondering whether she was going to have a love affair. He was about thirty, tall and thin, with white showing in his thick black hair and a long, pale face. His literary manner and broad vowel led people to suppose he came from Boston. The scene presents attraction as a question Eveline is still testing, rather than a decision she has made.

A Shared Theatrical Ambition

One night the two made plans for themselves and for American theatre. If they could secure backing, they would establish a repertory theatre devoted to serious American plays. They imagined complementary artistic roles for themselves: Freddy as an American Stanislavsky, Eveline as an American Lady Gregory, and perhaps also an American Bakst. The plan gives their relationship a collaborative horizon; they picture not only being together but making a theatre together. Yet the scheme depends on financial support they do not have, while Freddy’s earlier need to borrow from Eveline has already made the practical imbalance between them visible.

After the café closed, Eveline invited Freddy to her room by a separate staircase. She was excited by the prospect of being alone in a hotel room with a young man, and imagined Eleanor’s shock if she knew. They smoked and talked somewhat distractedly about theatre before Freddy put his arm around her waist, kissed her, and asked to stay the night. Eveline let him kiss her but could think only of Dirk, so she asked Freddy not to stay that time. Freddy was contrite and asked her to forgive him for sullying what he regarded as a beautiful moment. Eveline answered that she had not meant to accuse him and invited him to return for breakfast. The encounter brings them physically close while making clear that her emotional past still governs what she can accept.

Desire, Hesitation, and Interruption

Once Freddy had gone, Eveline partly wished she had let him stay. Her body’s tingling recalled the sensation of Dirk’s arms around her, and she wanted intensely to know what making love was like. That desire, however, did not resolve the question of love: she decided she would judge her feelings after seeing Freddy again in the morning. The distinction between wanting sexual experience and choosing Freddy as a beloved partner is central to the uncertainty of their relationship. Freddy’s devotion is clearer than Eveline’s; her attraction is genuine, but it remains entangled with memory and indecision.

The anticipated morning brought no answer. A telegram called Eveline home because her father, Dr. Hutchins, was seriously ill with diabetes. Freddy put her on the train. She had expected their parting to overwhelm her, but it did not. The interruption therefore tests her feelings without confirming them: she leaves before making the decision she had planned to make, and the departure itself fails to supply the emotional certainty she expected might come with separation.

Reunion and Unresolved Status

After her father recovered, Eveline took him to Santa Fé, where she spent a dreamy and unhappy year caring for her parents. When she eventually returned east, she was frightened by the possibility that she was pregnant. Freddy came to see her and, in his presence, their familiarity seemed to resume without a break. His theatrical work was continuing: he was close to finding a backer for the Maya ballet and involved in a new musical show for which he wanted Eveline to design costumes. Their renewed contact thus restores both personal ease and professional collaboration, but the evidence does not establish that their earlier theatre plan was realized.

Their reunion also shows that Freddy’s attachment remains active while Eveline’s life and loyalties have widened. He spoke anxiously about the prospect of war with Germany, identified himself as a pacifist, and thought he might go to jail unless there was a revolution. Eveline told him about her conversations with José O’Riely and her admiration for him as a painter. Freddy asked whether she was sure she had not fallen in love with José; she blushed, smiled, and said no. His question exposes the vulnerability beneath their easy reunion, while her answer does not amount to a declaration of love for Freddy. Their relationship remains affectionate and artistically fertile, but unresolved: the record shows his love, her fondness and desire, and repeated opportunities for closeness, not a settled mutual commitment.