Vincent Deering

Further names: Vincent, American artist, Deering, Mr. Deering, father, husband, artist

The story is told entirely from the point of view of the main character, Lizzie West. Therefore, the description of Vincent Deering is very personal and subjective. Vincent Deering, an American artist, lives with his wife, Mrs. Deering, and his daughter Juliet in a “[…] house, in a street near the hilltop[…]” (Lewis 177). He is tall, pale, and blonde, has a mustache, is intelligent, likes to smoke and has “[…] grey eyes that might have seemed mocking if they had not seemed so gentle.” (Lewis 180) Both, his marriage and his painting career are failing. “[H]e had tasted an earlier moment of success […] then the tide of publicity had somehow set the other way […]” (Lewis 180). He was the one to welcome Lizzie West on her first day as Juliet’s teacher, since his wife was lying upstairs in her room with a headache.

“Mr. Deering’s interest in his daughter was fitful rather than consecutive; but at least he was approachable, and listened sympathetically, if a little absently […] (Lewis 178) about Lizzie’s complaints. Often Deering responded to Lizzie’s pleas with money or by “[…]his charming smile.” (Lewis 178) He is somewhat forgetful, Lizzie thinks. He didn’t pay the last account Lizzie left on “[…] his littered writing table.” (Lewis 178) In Lizzie’s eyes he is still a “[…] spirit engaged with higher things [.]” so it makes her uncomfortable to bother him about those things. Most of the time she uses the words “kind” and “gentle” to describe his being. When Lizzie is about to quit her teaching position, he starts blaming Juliet’s mother for her behavior: “If little Juliet was as she was, it was because of the mother upstairs […]” (Lewis 179) After he explains that he needs her, he kisses her in his studio. Their liaison continues. They visit museums, galleries and churches and Vincent even suggests once meeting in a more private place, since they can’t meet in the pension where Lizzie is living. But she doesn’t agree to his solution, to which he responds “[…] with eyes half tender and half mocking, and an instant acquiescence […]” (Lewis 181)

Mr. Deering and his daughter meet with Mrs. Deering in St. Raphaël, who traveled there a couple weeks earlier and dies during her visit. Vincent returns to his house leaving Juliet at St. Raphaël. Lizzie arrives at the Deering’s house to tend to her work but is greeted by Vincent who “[…] looked paler than usual, and […] wore a black coat.” (Lewis 182) He leads Lizzie to his studio and tells her about his wife’s death and the whereabouts of Juliet. He seems “[…] constrained and hesitating.” (Lewis 182) Then, he finally tells Lizzie about having to go to America where his “[…] wife left a little property, a few pennies, that [he] must go and see to […] for the child.”(Lewis 183) He seems more upset about his departure than his wife’s death, that he only mentioned with one sentence and soon after kisses Lizzie. Vincent wishes to see Lizzie “[…] in some place less exposed […]” (Lewis 184) before he leaves. In Lizzies eyes, this plea is “[…] the sweetest testimony to the quality of his feeling, since, in the first weeks of the most perfunctory widowerhood, a man of his stamp is presumed to abstain from light adventures.” (Lewis 184) They meet in a restaurant by the Seine where they spend an hour together and although Lizzie is afraid at first, he calms her down and “[…] make[s] her trust[…]”(Lewis 184) him. Afterward, they make a pact to write each other letters during his stay in America. He never openly tells Lizzie that he loves her but Lizzie never demands him to do so. After Deering’s departure, he sends her letters from the train and steamer, which awake Lizzie’s assumption of his love to her. Once more, he writes her “[…] a long fond dissatisfied letter, vague in its indications to his own projects, specific in the expression of his love […]” (Lewis 188) when he arrives in New York. Yet, after that he stops to write her even after she sends him letters asking about him. Even Lizzie’s letter of goodbye, in which she frees him of any obligation, is left unanswered. Three years pass, when Vincent meets Lizzie coincidentally in Laurent’s restaurant back in Paris. Lizzie inherited money from a distant cousin and the way she is dressed confirms her fortune in any way. Vincent sits alone at “[…] a table wedged in the remotest corner of the garden[.]” (Lewis 190) and is later introduced to Lizzie and her friends by Mr. Jackson Benn, a man he met on the steamer coming from America to France. He writes her “[…] a brief note […] [,] an impersonal line […]” asking for a private meeting with Lizzie. Lizzie notices that “[…] failure and discouragement […] ha[ve] so blurred [the] handsome lines [on his face].” (Lewis 192) Vincent tells Lizzie about his time in America. First, about his short success second, about his failure that left him in debt and his wife’s money was soon all gone. He tried different professions during that period. He worked for “[…] a fashionable house decorator, designing wallpapers, illustrating magazine articles, and acting for a time […] as the social tout of a new hotel desirous of advertising its restaurant.” (Lewis 193). He interrupts his story to tell Lizzie that “[…] things have happened to [her] too[…]” (Lewis 193) while he leaned forward looking at Lizzie. He tells Lizzie that he had thought of her and how she had been in all these years. On Lizzie’s question about the reasons of breaking his vow, he twists the meaning of the vow he made explaining “[t]hat she shouldn’t have a word – not a syllable.” (Lewis 194) and that he was true to his word when he didn’t write her anymore. Since this answer doesn’t satisfy or explain Lizzie his silence he dodges her questions by changing the subject. When, finally, Lizzie asks about her letters and their meaning for him, he doesn’t show a sign of “[…] confusion, not the least quiver of a nerve.” (Lewis 195) by telling her that “[t]hey went everywhere with [him][…]” (Lewis 195). He only leaned in closer not fully answering Lizzie’s question if he “[…] ever so much as read them […]” (Lewis 195), only stating that “[t]here were beautiful, wonderful thing in them[.]” (Lewis 195). Vincent’s only excuse for not writing Lizzie was that he was ashamed of his life in America, that he was poor and could barely come up with enough money for Juliet’s clothes and education. He tells her about his suffering, “[…] his first direct appeal to her compassion […]” (Lewis 196) and it is then that Lizzie notices a “[…] difference between his image in her mind and his actual self […]” (Lewis 196). He continues to point out how much he suffered and soon appears to say good-bye to Lizzie with the hope that she would have learned to hate him to which she responds that she never hated him. Vincent wishes Lizzie good luck with her new life in fortune and her soon marriage to Mr. Jackson Benn, whereas she cries out that she is not engaged.

Again three years pass and Lizzie and Vincent are married and have a son. Lizzie set up a studio above the morning room in their house in Neuilly for Vincent so she could hear his steps. “His step had been less regularly audible […] [and after three years] he ha[s] somehow failed to settle down to the great work […]” (Lewis 197/198) he rather spends his days lying on the couch, smoking and reading newspapers. While he is upstairs, Lizzie and her friend Andora scan his remains from America that have been sent back to him from his former landlady. Vincent seems too comfortable in his position of a husband married to a wealthy wife to tend to his own business and “[…] [his] character was his way of letting the loose ends of life hang as they would.” (Lewis 198) Lizzie set up an account for his personal use but even that didn’t make him deal with his debts. All throughout their relationship “[…] feelings [such as love] were not communicable, even had one desired to express them […]” (Lewis 200) Further, he only let Juliet move in with them, after Lizzie reminded him of her and as soon as Juliet lived with them, he turned into the perfect father. On the day of the discovery of the unopened letters he suddenly and unexpectedly leaves the house in the morning, which is unusual for him to do and returns after a while. “Only some unwonted event could have caused him to leave the house at such an hour and with such marks of haste.” (Lewis 205) “[…] the gate moved again, and Deering entered.” (Lewis 206)