Freddy Seargeant

Freddy Seargeant is a struggling theater artist whose creative ambition and earnest love for Eveline Hutchins bring them close without making them a settled couple. His work can impress her, and she enjoys his company, but her uncertainty persists through kisses, plans for a theater, and the abrupt interruption of a family illness. His story is marked by the distance between artistic promise and economic insecurity, and between the devotion he offers and the feeling Eveline cannot return with equal certainty.

Identity and Artistic Work

In Chicago, Freddy belongs to the circle of young men Eveline gathers around her decorating business with Eleanor Stoddard. Eleanor regards these men as poor and a liability to the business; Freddy in particular has been a nuisance and has needed to borrow money from Eveline more than once. Eveline, however, trusts that the young men she backs will eventually make names for themselves. When Freddy secures an actual New York production of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, his success vindicates that confidence. Eveline feels triumphant, almost to the point of falling in love with him, while Freddy is already very much in love with her.

At the Brevoort Café, their late conversations establish both his appearance and manner. He is tall and thin, about thirty, with thick black hair touched by white and a long, pale face. His distinguished, literary manner includes a broad a that leads people to mistake him for one of the Back Bay Seargeants from Boston. Eveline watches him through cigarette smoke over Rhine wine and seltzer, wondering whether their companionship will become a love affair. The setting is not merely a backdrop: the café is full of interesting people, and their conversations make artistic and romantic possibility seem to belong to the same lively world.

Theater Plans and Romantic Hesitation

One night, Freddy and Eveline make plans for both themselves and the American theater. If they can find financial backing, they will start a repertory company devoted to real American plays. Freddy imagines himself as the American Stanislavsky; Eveline would be the American Lady Gregory, and perhaps the American Bakst as well. The scheme gives their attraction a shared professional horizon, but it remains a proposal dependent on money and future opportunity.

After the café closes, Eveline invites him to reach her room by another staircase. She is excited by the prospect of being alone in a hotel room with a young man and imagines Eleanor’s shock if she knew. They smoke and talk about theater, though their attention to the subject gives way to physical closeness. Freddy puts an arm around her waist, kisses her, and asks to stay the night. Eveline lets him kiss her but cannot stop thinking about Dirk McArthur; she asks Freddy not to stay that time. Freddy responds with contrition, begging her to forgive him for having sullied what he considers a beautiful moment. Eveline tells him that this is not what she meant and asks him to return for breakfast.

Once Freddy has gone, Eveline half wishes she had let him stay. Her body responds with a sensation that recalls Dirk’s embrace, and she wants to discover what making love is like. She takes a cold bath and postpones deciding whether she loves Freddy until she sees him in the morning. The hesitation is significant: Freddy has her tenderness and desire, but her thoughts remain divided, and neither the shared artistic project nor the intimacy of the hotel room resolves that division.

Separation and Reunion

The next morning brings a telegram calling Eveline home because her father, Dr. Hutchins, is seriously ill with diabetes. Freddy puts her on the train. Eveline expects the parting to sweep her away, as a decisive romantic separation might, but it does not. The contrast between her expectation and her actual response leaves their relationship unresolved rather than transformed by the goodbye.

When Eveline later returns east, Freddy receives her as if she had never been away. His professional life is still moving through uncertain opportunities: he is almost backed for the Maya ballet and is involved in a new musical show for which he wants Eveline to design costumes. These projects echo the earlier repertory-theater plan. Freddy continues to imagine creative work on a scale beyond his precarious circumstances, while Eveline remains someone he hopes to bring into that work as well as into his personal life.

Politics and the Limits of Their Bond

Their reunion also shows that Freddy’s concerns extend beyond theater. He is gloomy about the possibility of war with Germany and describes himself as a pacifist who will probably have to go to jail unless there is a revolution. His position places artistic plans beside political conviction: the future he imagines is threatened not only by scarce backing but by the prospect of war and punishment for refusing it.

Eveline tells him about José O’Riely and the talks they have had, praises him as a great painter, and says she may be an anarchist. Freddy looks worried and asks whether she is sure she has not fallen in love with José. She blushes, smiles, and says no; Freddy then tells her that she is a hundred times better-looking than the year before. His question reveals the insecurity beneath his devotion, while the exchange leaves Eveline’s feelings open rather than supplying a declaration of commitment. Across these episodes, Freddy is both a hopeful collaborator and a suitor whose affection is plain. His artistic successes and proposals draw Eveline toward him, but her divided attention and uncertain response keep the promise between them from becoming a lasting partnership in the material presented.