May Wynn and Walter Feather

May Wynn and Walter Feather are involved after Willie Keith leaves her, but their relationship is marked by uncertain promises and boundaries rather than a settled commitment. Feather wants to marry May, according to what she tells Willie, yet his previous marriage has not been legally ended; May says that, despite his attempts, she has not slept with him. Their connection is thus both intimate and constrained, and the scene in which it is disclosed makes May’s account compete with Willie’s hope of returning to her.

How the Relationship Begins

Marty Rubin tells Willie that May has been with Feather since about two weeks after Willie left. Rubin describes her as entangled with the musician, but he cannot say whether they are engaged or what Feather intends. A photograph of May with a saxophonist at a microphone gives Willie a visible first clue to her new life; Rubin identifies the man as Feather and says May changed her name because the other one had brought her no luck. The relationship reaches Willie first through another person’s account and an image, before he meets the couple together.

Rubin’s account presents Feather as an established musician with money and social standing in his own circle. He also says Feather has been married and divorced twice, and characterizes him as skilled with women. These are Rubin’s judgments, not an independent account of Feather’s motives. Rubin reports that Feather has told May his most recent divorce is not final, and admits he does not know whether Feather truly wants to marry her. The uncertainty matters: May is involved with a man whose stated future with her depends on a marriage that cannot yet take place.

A Public Pairing

Willie encounters the relationship at the Aztec Lounge, where Feather leads a band and May sings on the orchestra platform. The band is playing Anchors Aweigh when Willie enters; Rubin jokingly presents the music as a welcome for the sailor. May’s bright blond hair startles Willie, who watches her from behind paper palms before she and Feather leave the platform together during a break. She wears a camel’s-hair coat, and the two walk side by side with an ease Willie experiences as painful. The scene makes their closeness public and physical before anyone explains what it means.

When Willie steps forward, May recoils and reaches for Feather’s arm. Her shock at seeing Willie interrupts the couple’s routine, but Feather responds casually, inviting them all to the grill. May looks to him before agreeing to speak privately with Willie; Feather gives her permission, while noting that he does not have much time. She touches his hand before he leaves. The exchange shows both her attachment to Feather and the way his presence shapes the encounter: Willie has to ask for time with May, and she separates from Feather only after he accepts her choice.

May’s Account and Its Limits

In her conversation with Willie, May rejects the idea that she is simply in love with Feather. She says what they had does not amount to a love she expects to repeat, and responds sharply when Willie asks whether she loves him. Yet she also tells Willie that Feather genuinely wants to marry her. Her description holds distance and involvement together: she does not present the relationship as a great romance, but she recognizes Feather’s intention to make it one.

May then insists that she has not slept with Feather. She says he has tried and continues to try, but that she will not enter a sexual relationship with a man whose divorce is unfinished. She frames this boundary as her own religious and personal scruple, and explicitly rejects the notion that Willie is rescuing a helpless woman. Her disclosure is not offered as a plea for belief or as a promise to return to Willie; she says she does not expect it to change anything. In doing so, she claims authority over the meaning of her relationship rather than letting Willie define it as an affair or a rescue.

The Triangle with Willie

Feather’s relationship with May becomes visible at the moment Willie tries to resume his own claim on her. May recalls how badly Willie hurt her and says she had believed their love finished; Willie answers that it is not dead. Against that unresolved history, Feather is not only a rival but the man beside May in the life she has built since Willie left. Rubin says she remains connected to him professionally and continues paying him a ten-percent share even though she has no written obligation to do so. He also reports that Feather advised her to stop paying, while May resisted Rubin’s criticism of Feather. These details suggest a bond with practical as well as romantic dimensions, though they do not settle what May will choose.

The relationship remains unresolved in the encounter. May says Walter has a party that night and refuses Willie’s request to see her after the show. Feather’s intention to marry her is therefore set against the unfinished divorce, May’s stated sexual boundary, and Willie’s return. The scene establishes no final decision between the men; instead, it leaves May’s independent account—neither a declaration of love for Feather nor consent to be reclaimed by Willie—at the center of the uncertainty.