Full of Money by Bill James Page B

said. He wished to sound like an ally, ready with some of that empathy Pellotte prized, and so the first name seemed more right, now.
    â€˜True, but several of our crew are narrow,’ Dean said.
    â€˜Narrow and dangerous. I have to take due notice of their views,’ Pellotte said. ‘I must not provoke mutiny.’
    â€˜That’s an aspect of leadership. Why I said complex. The fact is, Larry, very few of our folk are into the arts on a compulsive basis,’ Dean remarked. He leaned forward, obviously wanting to give Edgehill a longish statement. ‘To them it wouldn’t signify that here you had two emotionally bruised and possibly lonely people luckily brought together by Haydn and Mozart, unquestionably genuine composers. This is outside the range of comprehension for some in the firm. I don’t say they’ve never even fucking heard of Haydn and Mozart. They’re not zombies. We’ve got people in Mensa and one who sailed through all tests for the Foreign Office, then decided no, he didn’t want to be our man in the Democratic Republic of Congo, thanks. He took a ground-level post with us instead, though he’s moved up a few steps now and runs Home Delivery, which probably brings in more than he’d have got as an ambassador.
    â€˜But few of our folk would regard that kind of concert, however well played, as excuse for a romance with someone from Temperate. They can street deal all right, and sell at raves like galloping magic. This is their bent, but it’s a very specific, limited bent. You’re right – narrowness. Talk to some of them about Conrad’s Shadow Line and they think you mean snorting coke at dusk. They’re the same type who’d ask – and ask in quite a stern manner – they’d ask if you, Larry, living on Whitsun, should be using someone from Temperate, such as Bale. And more or less as a fixture. Well, no, they wouldn’t ask, because they wouldn’t have any doubts. They see this as a kind of . . . well, cool disregard for long-established custom and practice, Larry. And stronger – even disloyalty. That flagrant way your name hugs the screen after a show featuring Bale.’
    Edgehill said: ‘But, to my knowledge Rupert isn’t in any way concerned with . . . well, gardening products or—’
    â€˜He lives on Temperate. For them, nothing else matters,’ Dean said.
    Edgehill said: ‘We wouldn’t employ him if—’
    â€˜They don’t do subtlety. Maybe nothing else would have mattered for me not long ago,’ Pellotte said. ‘I abhor melodrama, but we’re in a war setting, Larry. Temperate’s the enemy. Them and us, and nothing seemed too bad for them in my view then – “them” being the business hierarchy mainly, yes, but the whole estate, too, for accommodating them, conniving with them. Frankly, I, myself, didn’t like you using Bale so persistently. It seemed . . . it seemed unnecessary.’
    â€˜Gratuitous. Like giving Adrian the finger. Tactless,’ Dean said. ‘Arrogant. Adrian can’t abide arrogance.’
    Pellotte’s tone switched, grew less assured. Did Edgehill hear a tremor? ‘But now – now, there’s Dione, my daughter.’
    â€˜Adrian’s had to rethink,’ Dean said. ‘He has the courage to admit it.’
    â€˜Inevitable,’ Pellotte said.
    â€˜He has the bravery to rethink,’ Dean said. ‘What I referred to as complex, you see. Extremely so. The fatherly aspect. Priorities.’
    â€˜Some of these people – the people who object – can grow wild, Larry,’ Pellotte said. ‘They get themselves high and go berserk. They could decide to start a cleansing spree. This is how they see it – cleansing.’
    â€˜That word from the Balkans strife,’ Dean said.
    â€˜But these are only your tribesmen,’ Edgehill said.