Twenty-FourThe Southern New Orleans Yacht Club, which traces it roots back to 1849, sits gracefully on the coast of Lake Pontchartrain. Its membership includes Madison Bouvier who participates in annual regattas and elaborate social events at the club with the rich and powerful members.
On this evening Hardin Westwick, Senator Chiles, Henry Broussard and Madison Bouvier are in a highly intense meeting. Westwick fumes, harasses, and ridicules. Broussard drinks continuously. Bouvier chain smokes. Chiles fiddles nervously with his watch fob and chain, constantly checking the time as though there is somewhere else he has to be, or wishes he could be.
“Hardin, you got your Senate approval,” Chiles reminds him. “Westwind's a shoo-in. I don't know why you're so bent out of shape.”
Westwick is
