He could not make her seem to listen patiently while he explained that only one company was now shooting on the lot, but that big things were expected to be on in another week or so.

A certain skeptic hardness was in her gaze as he visioned it.
He decided, indeed, that he could never bring himself even to attempt this scene with the woman, so remote was he from seeing her eye soften and her voice warm with the assurance that a few weeks more or less need not matter.

The room rent, he was confident, would have to be paid strictly in advance so long as their relations continued.

She was the kind who would insist upon this formality even after he began to play, at an enormous salary, a certain outstanding part in the Hazards of Hortense.

The exigencies, even the adversities, of art would never make the slightest appeal to this hardened soul.