Re: the thin and red/the actress
"That's closer to the mark. Everyone had secrets. If one man's are more pronounced, more marked, then he is merely a point on a curve, not an outlier." He looked at her again, and he imagined her on the stage, impassioned under gaslight.
"MacBeth," he said, appreciative, and his smile turned a little mischeivous. "Shall I say it a third time?" A member of staff came by, impeccably dressed, and Bennett tapped her side of the table and his own without a word, barely looking at him. The man hurried off to fetch them another set of glasses. "It must be difficult to delve into the mind of such a conniving, cruel woman."
"What roles have you played? Cordelia? Titania? Juliet?" She was young enough for any of the good ones, really, not yet in the years when the Nurse and Gertrude were all the Bard had to offer to an actress. He fished around in his pocket and produced a small silver card case. "The theatre, yes. And actresses. Depending on the theatre." Some had such wonderfully open backstage doors for a gentleman of means who wanted to get to know an actress better.