Re: the thin and red/the actress
"I am unfraid of luck or superstition." He smiled again, with those bright, chalk white teeth. "I believe in what can be proved. Are you superstitious? Almost every actress I've met has their own little preparation before going onstage. They touch an old doll, or talk to the same crewhand, or enter the same way, no matter what the script tells them."
"We all are presented with opportunities," he said. He leaned a little over the table, and something glinted in his eyes. "Some take them. Some leave them on the table. Their moral qualms prevent them."
He smiled, and when he smiled, there were no crow's feet around his eyes. "A gentleman in my position meets actresses," he said. A fact of life, or so it appeared.