Van Lennop watched her troubled face and waited.
"Then that's why old Edouard Dubois was asked, though he never speaks, and Alva Jackson, who is uncouth and ignorant? They represent money."
Van Lennop smiled.
"Undoubtedly."
"And the Starrs are brains."
He laughed outright now.
"The power of the press! Correct, Miss Tisdale."
"And Andy P. Symes——" Van Lennop supplied dryly—"is family. He had a great-grandfather, I believe."
Van Lennop returned the persistent, pleading stare of Alphonse and Gaston while Essie pondered this bewildering subject.
"But out here it's mostly money that counts, or rather will count in the future."