Eveline Hutchins–Eleanor Stoddard relationship

Eveline Hutchins–Eleanor Stoddard relationship is a close friendship shaped by shared work and domestic life in Paris, then unsettled by rivalry, jealousy, and diverging ideas about how to live during wartime. The two women establish a home together and share the rhythms of Red Cross service, but intimacy does not protect them from watching one another closely or from turning affection into conflict. By the time J.W. Moorehouse’s presence becomes central to both women, their old ease has given way to guardedness, sarcasm, and unspoken claims.

A Shared Home and Daily Work

Eveline goes to live with Eleanor in an apartment on the Quai de la Tournelle, in the mansard floor of an old, grey-faced house. The Seine and the island opposite become a familiar view from their window; almost every evening, after office work, they take tea together at a small table there. Their days have a common purpose as well as a common address: they paste photographs of ruined French farms and orphaned children into scrapbooks for Red Cross campaigns back home. These repeated routines make the friendship practical and intimate, built from work done side by side and evenings returned to together.

The household also places them in daily contact with Yvonne, who cooks with groceries and sugar obtained through the Red Cross commissary and uses a system of barter to keep food costs low. Eleanor and Eveline share the scene, though not always the same judgment of it. When Yvonne rails against profiteering officials and insists that her ladies should eat well, Eleanor attributes the old woman’s anger to suffering, while Jerry Burnham suggests that the wider world is what has gone mad. The episode gives their domestic life a political edge: their shared home is not sealed off from the inequalities and arguments of wartime Paris.

Different Responses to War and Paris

Their companionship accommodates differences in temperament. When Maurice Millet visits, Eleanor is deeply moved by his religious accounts of sacrifice, dying soldiers, and a vision of Christ among the wounded. Eveline does not share her enthusiasm, though she does not dispute Eleanor’s response. The next morning, Eleanor says she may become Catholic; she brings Eveline to hear mass at Notre-Dame de Paris, and they light candles for Maurice’s safety. Eveline finds the service impressive and hopes Maurice will survive. The scene shows the women still moving together through experiences that affect them differently.

Their disagreements become more public as their social circle expands. During a Red Cross tour of canteens in eastern France with J.W. Moorehouse, they see military activity and spend time with officers. It is on this trip that Eveline first notices a coolness in Eleanor’s manner that hurts her. Back in Paris, a dinner brings the strain into the open: Don Stevens objects to the officers’ assumptions about pacifism and patriotism, and Eleanor resents Eveline for inviting him. A chance mishap breaks the argument’s immediate tension, but afterward the women quarrel directly. By the next morning Eleanor will not speak to Eveline, who goes out to look for another apartment. Their disagreement is not simply about a guest; it exposes the incompatible company and principles each is prepared to defend.

J.W. Moorehouse and the Growth of Jealousy

J.W. Moorehouse further complicates the friendship. Eveline senses that Eleanor’s connection with him may be more than she can openly name, but the evidence she receives is partial. When J.W. visits for tea, Eveline feels watched and observes him seeming nervous and reluctant to leave. Eleanor accompanies him into the stairwell and returns composed. She eventually tells Eveline that J.W.’s wife, Gertrude, is in a sanitarium with a nervous breakdown. The disclosure gives Eveline new context for their closeness without resolving what that closeness means.

During the Peace Conference, Eveline often visits J.W.’s suite at the Hôtel de Crillon. She is drawn to his attention, while feeling that Eleanor watches them with jealous vigilance. In Nice, Eveline and J.W. speak openly about Eleanor’s importance in each of their lives: Eveline describes her as the exceptional friend who had mattered to her in Chicago, and J.W. recalls Eleanor’s support during difficult years with Gertrude in New York. He characterizes their friendship as beautiful and non-sensual. Eveline admits she had assumed they were lovers; J.W. denies it and says he had been too occupied with work to develop that part of his life. The conversation makes their shared attachment to Eleanor explicit, while leaving Eveline’s own hopes about J.W. unsettled.

Distance, Return, and an Unresolved Triangle

After Eleanor returns carrying old Italian damask, Eveline perceives a new coldness in her manner. At the Crillon, J.W.’s secretary, Miss Williams, is barely civil to Eveline but attentive to Eleanor, and even the valet seems to treat them differently. J.W. still gives Eveline furtive squeezes of the hand, but they no longer go out alone. Eveline writes him long, unhappy notes; he does not discuss them and says he never writes personal letters. She considers returning to America, yet recoils from the prospect of resuming her former life. The friendship’s deterioration is thus linked to Eveline’s isolation: she feels displaced both in the household and in the intimacy she wants from J.W.

A later visit to Eleanor’s rooms sharpens the unspoken tension. Eveline passes an open bedroom door and sees J.W. sitting up in bed. She pulls the door shut, and Eleanor thanks her coolly, explaining that the room is untidy. When Freddy arrives and urges Eleanor to join a trip to Chartres, Eleanor proposes that Eveline and Freddy go ahead while she calls J.W. at the Crillon and asks him to drive out so they can all return together. Eveline agrees in a singsong voice and leaves in a daze. The scene brings the relationship’s pattern into focus: Eleanor manages the arrangements, Eveline notices what remains unspoken, and both continue to behave as if companionship can be maintained without directly naming the jealousy between them. The surviving episodes end without a reconciliation or a final break, leaving their closeness suspended between old affection and guarded competition.