John is no stranger to the Listening Wave Lodge by the sea in Newport County, where this gathering was held. From a very young age www.biquge.info he was often taken by his family to attend various gatherings held here. Listening to the Waves is a beachfront villa built by Grand Berconels Leels Vanderbilt II during his lifetime. Backed by the Atlantic Ocean, each of the 70 rooms has a view of the sea and the faint sound of waves crashing against the cliff shore.

The whole villa pursues the living style of the European royal palace aristocracy, and the decoration is extremely luxurious. The fresco in the center of the dining room's ceiling was painted by Master Paul, who created the main ceiling of the Paris Opera. The dining table is made of oak inlaid with lemonwood and is furnished with 34 Renaissance soft dining chairs. The billiard room has Italian marble walls, alabaster arches in golden brown material, and a dolphin-patterned ceiling on the lower porch made of thousands of marble pieces. The entire room of the music room, together with the furniture, was created in Paris. The library is inlaid with Circassian walnut, the ceiling is hand-painted and gilded, and the walls are inlaid with green Spanish leather. The stone fireplace is from a 16th-century French castle with a gold-rimmed walnut entrance. The ceiling of the gallery is made of gilded plaster, and most of the sculptures and paintings inside are by famous artists. Among them, there is a statue of an angel holding an anchor and gear, which is a symbol of the blessing of the family business. Uncle spent more than $7 million to build the villa, which is almost $150 million in later generations.

No matter what era it is, this villa can be considered a super mansion that deserves to be considered a well-deserved super mansion. But in the Vanderbilt family, it was nothing. In the United States, the third and fourth generations of Vanderbilt are known to be keen on new mansions. On Fifth Avenue in Manhattan alone, the Vanderbilt family has built more than a dozen luxury homes. One of them had 137 rooms, making it the largest residential tower in an American city at the time. Tosdan Bond Veblen, the originator of American institutional economics, even invented a proper term for this phenomenon in his book "The Theory of the Idle Class", "conspicuous consumption".

Villas like Tingtao Villa are basically found in every third or fourth generation of Vanderbilt. For example, the Marbur villa built by the third Berkisam, although it is not as large as Tingtao Villa, only 50 rooms, but the cost is as high as 11 million US dollars, of which the European marble used for decoration alone costs 7 million US dollars, so it is also called the "marble house".

But all of these mansions feel a little too small compared to the Bilmore Manor built by John's father during his lifetime. Designed by a famous French architect, the Bilmore estate has 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, 3 kitchens, 1 indoor bowling alley, 1 indoor swimming pool, and covers an area of 16,000 square meters. To this end, Bilmore Manor remains the largest private villa in the United States and is a representative of the Gilded Age.

The lavish life of the family members was not only manifested in the construction of mansions, they also often held extremely lavish balls. A New York newspaper once reported a ball held by the Third Uncle's family: "Last night the Vanderbilts held a masquerade ball in their luxurious villa, and it was undoubtedly the most glorious entertainment in New York history. The third aunt, Alva, has also publicly admitted that the cost of each ball is more than $250,000, and the roses for the ball alone are worth more than $11,000.

John, who grew up at Bilmore Manor, understands this way of life. Like himself, many family members are born with endless money to spend and can live in a comfortable and luxurious environment for the rest of their lives. They have little other pursuits than to spend money on competitions. In the words of the previous life, these people are not spending money, but loneliness.

Unlike most Vanderbilts, John doesn't agree with this way of life from the bottom of his heart. In fact, since he became an adult, he has rarely returned to Bimore Manor. In his opinion, this luxurious estate with 250 rooms will only bring spiritual loneliness to himself. In 1930, John made up his mind to move out of the Bimore estate and open it to the public. In addition to the daily maintenance of the estate, all the fees collected were donated to the nearby church hospital. And he himself took Grandma Susan's family to live on the small farm next door.

It is precisely because of this act that John, a child who lost his father since childhood, has won the appreciation and attention of the family bosses. As the rulers of the family, whether it is the three remaining generations of Vanderbilt-Frederick, or the four generations of William and Harold, they are well aware that this extravagant, unenterprising lifestyle is gradually encroaching on the foundation of the family. Over the years, thanks to their cultivation and support, John was able to get rid of the fate of ordinary family members eating and waiting for death, and quickly stood out in the family business and became a prince of the company. Judging from William's special invitation to the Democrats' gathering this time, John knew that his entrepreneurial plan had once again earned him extra points. It can be expected that the family's investment in his resources will be further increased in the future.

As expected, for the first hour of the meeting, John had been leading the governor's cousin to meet with the Republican bigwigs. Among them are members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Supreme Court justices, generals of the Admiralty, bankers of Wall Street, steel magnates of Pittsburgh, and real estate tycoons of New York. In short, all are influential figures in the Republican Party. John greets the bigwigs of the bigwigs (the Republicans are nicknamed bigwigs because they represent the interests of big business) while searching the crowd for the target of his trip. Soon, he spotted Donovan in a corner of the hall. The former assistant to the attorney general was enthusiastically telling those around him about his recent visit to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War.

"Hello, Mr. Donovan. I'm John Vanderbilt. I heard that you have just returned from Spain, what is the situation over there, can Franco take Madrid? John walked over and took the opportunity to join their conversation.

"Hello, young man. Are you William's nephew? Although John is 33 years old, he is still a young man compared to Donovan, who is 21 years older than him.

"Brother, I'm the youngest of the fourth generation of the Vanderbilt family."

Hearing that John was the younger brother of his longtime friend, Donovan turned around and took him a glass of gin from the waiter, "Have a drink?" You can call me Bill. John knew that this World War I battle hero had the famous nickname "Savage Bill". Donovan himself was very proud of the nickname, and by saying so he indicated that he was going to have a relationship with his peers.

"What happened in Madrid, Franco and the Popular Front didn't count, it depended on the attitude of Berlin and Moscow......" Donovan began to gush about his views on the Spanish Civil War.

Unlike the traditional image of a cunning, gloomy and introverted spy chief, Donovan is very talkative. This poor boy from an Irish Catholic family in Buffalo was known for his intelligence, energy, fortitude, bravery, and fearlessness, and he was a natural adventurer. During World War I, Donovan became a household name in the United States for his bravery in battle, and he was one of the few people in American history to receive the Grand Slam of the Medal of Merit. This includes the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honor for US servicemen.

After the war, Donovan went on to work as a Buffalo City Attorney, Mayor of Rochester, and Assistant Attorney General. It is worth mentioning that Donovan had a strained relationship with his subordinate, later FBI Director Edgar Hoover, during his tenure as assistant attorney general. So much so that later, the two major intelligence agencies they led regarded the dismantling of each other and the destruction of each other as traditional preservation projects. Even in the 21st century, the CIA and the FBI often looked at each other unpleasantly. John's memories from his past life contain many anecdotes about Donovan, but he does not dare to judge this man on this basis. Because most of them were collected, compiled and disseminated by Hoover's subordinates.

In 1937, Donovan had a rough career. After losing his bid for governor of New York and failing to seek the post of attorney general, the former star of the Republican Party turned around and opened a law firm on Wall Street. Although his fellow White House classmates (Donovan and Roosevelt were classmates at Columbia's law school) offered him the post of deputy secretary of the Navy, he was bored and unceremoniously declined. Because of his bold personality and wide social network, his law firm business has been thriving, and he soon made a fortune. However, Donovan is an idle man and has no interest in making money at all. He soon handed over the firm to his partners and went out of his own pocket to various battlefields in Europe as a so-called "independent observer".

John and Donovan had a very speculative conversation, and as he was familiar with the direction of historical development, he very much agreed with Donovan's view that "the political situation in Europe will deteriorate further, and the United States should prepare for war as soon as possible." This made Donovan very happy. After a few glasses of gin, Donovan readily agreed to serve as legal counsel to John's new company. In return, John generously sponsored Donovan's expedition.

Late at night, the people attending the party gradually dispersed. John invites Donovan to stay overnight at Ting Tao Villa. Early the next morning, he would hitchhike back to New York with Donovan. There, John will meet Thomas Watson Jr., who is number one on his "R-list."