(FORTUNE Magazine) – FOR A TEXAS billionaire, Robert M. Bass is cast against type. He displays his wealth tastefully, if at all. He refrains from making wild, macho pronouncements about what's ailing society. And if he inherited flamboyance from his oil field ancestors, it's under wraps. In fact, Bass is all but invisible. His name pops up in connection with seemingly every big deal of the day, but the man himself does not materialize. In a little over a year, Bass joined a Japanese partner in acquiring the Westin Hotel chain from Allegis for $1.53 billion, sold New York City's landmark Plaza Hotel to Donald Trump for about $400 million, organized a $700 million buyout of Bell & Howell, put Macmillan into play with a $2 billion offer, and is on the verge of closing a deal to control the nation's second- largest thrift, American Savings & Loan of California -- all without once granting an interview to the business press. The House Banking Committee in September pressed Bass to testify in public about the American Savings deal, which involved $2 billion in federal aid. Bass managed to wangle a back-room hearing. The latest buzz about Bass is that he and his wife, Anne, may move their power base from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C. The couple bought a complex of expensive, contiguous houses in the city's Georgetown section, including the estate that Ulysses S. Grant used as his summer White House. This fall they hosted a gala dinner-dance to mark the restoration of Union Station. Robert is chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Anne is on the board of several Washington-based art and conservation organizations. They contributed heavily to the Democratic Party. Washington is a one-company town. Who knows what kind of takeover may be in the works?