It's just like a Jane Austen novel! The Times DealBook columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin thought Stephen A. Feinberg, the notoriously reclusive CEO of Cerberus Capital Management (which owns Chrysler and GMAC), must be most horrid; he once referred to him in a column as "cold and ruthless," even though they'd never met. But Sorkin did meet Feinberg Wednesday night and found him to be very agreeable after all.

He doesn’t speak with an air of invincibility; he is soft-spoken and seems uncomfortable playing the role of a mogul. He looked as if he would be more comfortable in jeans and work boots than pinstripes and wingtips (he was wearing an off-the-rack blue suit). He lives in Manhattan, but says doing so is almost against his better judgment. “I wouldn’t mind living in a small town,” he said….When you meet him, when he looks you in the eye, when he talks about his brother-in-law the police officer, he is so genuine it seems like an accident he is on Wall Street.

"Was I wrong about Mr. Feinberg?" Sorkin concludes. "I might have been." Perhaps they shall marry!

Cerberus Recluse Lifts the Veil a Little Bit [DealBook/NYT]
Related: The Influentials [NYM]