On the evening of Christmas Eve, John's family of four took Grandma Susan and Mary to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, between 39th and 40th Streets on Broadway. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 InfoJohn is all too familiar with New York's most luxurious and prestigious opera house. The Vanderbilt family's ties to the Metropolitan Opera date back to Grandpa William's generation.

It is said that John's grandmother was very fond of going to the opera during her lifetime, but at that time, the only luxury opera house in New York (the Yuefu Opera House) had too few boxes, and it was often allocated early. So Grandpa William invited Roosevelt, Astor, Morgan and other family members to the house and expressed the idea of building a new theater.

Grandpa William's proposal was enthusiastically responded to by the New York celebrities present. The "New York landlord" Astor family sold the land, several others pooled 5 million US dollars, and William's grandfather himself contributed more than 3 million US dollars, and finally built this top opera house with 3,788 seats and 122 boxes in 1883. Although by that time, John's grandmother had died.

For nearly half a century, the Vanderbilt family served on the theater's board of directors until 1932, when the joint-stock Metropolitan Opera Company was dissolved, suffering heavy losses due to the economic crisis.

Today, the Metropolitan Opera is governed by the "Metropolitan Opera Association", initiated by Mrs. Belmont. With more than 20,000 members, all of whom are upper-middle-class New Yorkers, and backed by big funders like the Juliard Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, the theater is well-funded. Many of the world's leading artists are rushing to sign with the theater side.

Originally, the Metropolitan Opera had another important performance tonight. But for the sake of the Vanderbilt Educational Foundation and the British Consul, the theater made way for Adele's activities. Anyway, they never relied on show tickets to eat, and John and the others donated a lot to the theater every year.

John was originally purely to accompany his wife through the motions. As soon as Adele entered the theater, she left them behind and threw herself into her busy work. John took little Ella around the theater and told her the story of the Vanderbilt family and the theater. But unexpectedly, as soon as he introduced the carving on the giant arch to Little Ella, he became the focus of the audience.

It turned out that most of the British children who came to the Christmas Eve event tonight were "escorted" by John all the way from England. Many children still remember John, the American "officer uncle" who accompanied them through that sea journey. Succession after batch of children, accompanied by their American adoptive parents, came forward to thank John, and he was overwhelmed.

In the end, John had to hide in the VIP lounge backstage under the guise of taking care of the sleeping little Eric. Truth be told, John had never received so many thanks in public. While being flattered, he also felt a trace of shame in his heart.

In fact, when he was on the boat, he was quite tired of these "bear children" who were crying and making trouble when they left home for the first time. Looking back now, at that time, except for some necessary duties every day, he spent most of his time in his room discussing the psychological warfare report with little Joseph, and he didn't pay much attention to these children's affairs at all.

I never thought that the trivial thing he did at that time would be remembered by so many children. John was even a little ashamed, feeling that he couldn't stand up to these children. At that time, he wished he could care more about these children who left their parents and went to a foreign land alone.

"Honey, you're here." Adele pushed open the door and walked into the VIP lounge in high spirits. She first looked at her sleeping son, then hugged John and kissed him. "Honey, you are great. You've helped so many children, how come you've never told me. ”

John didn't know what to say, so he said vaguely, "I'm just doing my normal job duties." ”

In Adele's eyes, her husband is all a sign of modesty. She proudly took her husband's arm, "Go, my dear, Sir Mogi is looking for you." ”

As consul at the British Consulate General in New York, Sir Moggie certainly did not miss the opportunity to get on good terms with John. He had heard from a colleague in the Foreign Office that John had a good personal relationship with Prime Minister Churchill's family. The fact that he was able to attend the event organized by Adele tonight was in itself a gesture of goodwill to John and the Vanderbilt family.

In the box on the second floor, John chatted with Sir Moggie until the show began. At first, all they said was some nonsense that was not nutritious. Moggie first expressed his gratitude and admiration to John's family, and then they talked about the poor Christmas food supply in London and the recent bombing by the Germans from tonight's event. Then they exchanged views on Chaplin's newly released film "The Great Dictator", and gossiped about recent political jokes about the Führer and the Nazi leadership.

When John heard the last bell ringing before the show, and was about to take his leave and go back to his box, Sir Moggie stopped him and handed him a blue envelope.

"What is this?" John was a little confused, the recipient of the letter was Adele, and the sender was Charles de Gaulle. It seems that De Gaulle must have replied to the letter he had handed over to Adele.

But wasn't de Gaulle supposed to be in Brazzaville (the capital of the Congo)? And even if the United States did not recognize Free France, this did not prevent him from sending personal letters to the United States. How could his reply be forwarded through a British diplomat?

"I just arrived this morning, and it was a personal email from General de Gaulle to Madame Adele." Sir Moji's eyes were a little evasive: "But I want to give you the same." ”

Nonsense, of course it's the same. John took the letter speechlessly, what was going on in the head of this consul? Could it be that he thought that Adele and de Gaulle could have some ulterior relationship.

Back in his box, John and Adele read together the reply letter from the so-called "de Gaulle".

It was not Charles de Gaulle himself who wrote the letter, this guy was tinkering with his French Imperial Defense Council in the Congo, where could he care to reply to Adele. Yvonne, the wife of Charles de Gaulle, who wrote to Adele. Today, she is living in the countryside of London with her young daughter, who is mentally handicapped.

In the letter, Yvonne began by recalling her friendship with Adele in Paris and expressing her gratitude to Adele for her support of her husband's cause of Free France. Finally, she mentioned in her letter that her eldest son, Philippe, would soon accompany Father Dajeanlieu to Canada and the United States. Through Adele, he hopes to be able to get in touch with French-American groups in the United States that support the Free French movement.

John pouted after reading the letter. It seems that de Gaulle did not say hello to the British, and the Defence Committee that he set up without permission did not have a good time. The British, who should have been a little annoyed by his proclamation "for the final establishment of a representative body of the French government and the French people of a normal character", will hang him for a while.

Without the financial support of the British, what did de Gaulle use to encourage the black brothers in Africa to help them fight. Father Dajeanlieu, a former archbishop, was forced to travel to Canada and the United States in a private capacity to raise funds. You know, at this time, the United States and Canada both had normal diplomatic relations with Vichy France.

John was a little hesitant to let Adele get too involved in this kind of thing.