Willie reunites with May and proposes to her

Willie reunites with May and proposes to her in New York after returning from the war, but the encounter ends without a definite answer. Finding May under a new stage name and learning that she is close to Walter Feather, Willie has to face both the damage he caused and the changed lives they have made apart. His proposal marks a decisive change in his own intentions; May’s response keeps their future unresolved.

Finding May in New York

As soon as he brings his bags from the car, Willie calls Marty Rubin, who has been waiting for him to appear. Rubin does not answer Willie’s question about May immediately. Instead, he leads him from his cramped office along Forty-seventh Street and up Seventh Avenue into the lobby of a popular hotel Willie recognizes. There, Rubin points out the sign for the Aztec Lounge. Its display identifies May as Marie Minotti, a performer appearing with a saxophonist. The new name and public image confront Willie with a version of May that has continued her life without him.

Rubin explains that May changed her name because she believed the old one had brought her bad luck. He also tells Willie that she has been with Feather since about two weeks after Willie left, and that she is involved with him. The news unsettles Willie. He studies Feather’s photograph and asks about the man, while Rubin describes Feather as a poor prospect and says he has tried to intervene. The information reaches Willie before May can tell her own story, so he enters their meeting carrying both Rubin’s account and the knowledge that his absence has had consequences.

The encounter and the old injury

Willie finds May during a break in the musicians’ set. She and Feather approach the door together, moving with an ease that sharply affects Willie. He steps out from behind the palms in his bridge coat, scarf, and hat, and greets her. May recoils in surprise, asks how long he has been there, and learns that he has only just arrived. The exchange begins not as an easy reunion but as a collision between Willie’s return and May’s settled public life.

At the table, Willie asks why she did not answer his letter. When he presses her about whether she is engaged or married, she looks away. He asks whether she is Feather’s lover; May rejects the old-fashioned term but does not initially give him the reassurance he wants. Willie pauses to absorb what he has learned, then asks her to marry him. His proposal comes before he has fully settled his own feelings: the narration shows him wondering whether he truly wants her, even as the force of his emotion carries him forward.

Willie explains that he loves her and accepts responsibility for what happened between them. He believes they belong together and asks her to marry him. May does not withdraw her hand when he takes it, but neither does that gesture settle the question. She points out that he once hurt her badly enough that she thought their love was finished. Her guardedness gives the reunion its central tension: Willie speaks as though recognition can restore their bond, while May remembers that she had already tried to build a life beyond it.

What May reveals, and what she withholds

May tells Willie that she and Feather have not become lovers. She stresses that she is not a helpless woman awaiting rescue, and explains that Feather wants to marry her but is not yet divorced. Her disclosure complicates Willie’s assumptions and Rubin’s account: Feather is not simply a rival who has taken May from him, and May’s attachment to him exists alongside a boundary she has chosen to maintain. Willie believes her, but the revelation does not erase the hurt or decide what she should do.

The two kiss, and May admits that she once imagined having children with Willie, though she does not feel the same way about Feather. She also tells Willie that their conversation has left her emotionally shaken and asks him not to press her or build expectations around it. She agrees to have lunch with him the next day, but declines his attempt to turn that meeting into breakfast and asks him not to check into the hotel merely to stay nearby. Her practical obligations remain in view: she has to make records later that afternoon and return to work. Intimacy has reopened a possibility, not suspended the life she has been leading.

Willie answers her caution with a promise that he expects love rather than comfort or financial ease to make them happy. May says she will see him the next day, without promising marriage. He continues to urge a closer meeting, then recognizes the difference between his certainty and her hesitation. The scene therefore gives him emotional access to May again, but not the certainty of her consent to a shared future.

An open ending

After the conversation, Willie speaks briefly with Feather, who reminds him of Tom Keefer in a way that encourages Willie; Willie feels that he has matched Keefer. He then leaves rather than remaining at the lounge. Outside, Navy ranks march along Fifth Avenue to brass-band music. Willie feels no regret at watching from the sidelines. His attention is fixed on May and on the decision he has made: he intends to make her his wife, although he still does not know what kind of life they could share or whether they would be happy.

That final resolve is not the same as a completed reconciliation. May has agreed to see Willie again, disclosed that she has not become Feather’s lover, and shared a moment of renewed intimacy, but she has not accepted the proposal. The novel closes on Willie’s commitment rather than on a confirmed marriage. The contrast between the victorious naval procession and his private, uncertain hope brings his wartime story back to a personal choice: he no longer measures the future chiefly by the Navy or the war, but by the relationship he once damaged and now wants to recover.