She wore a steel gray business suit and under the jacket a dark blue shirt and a man's tie of lighter shade. The edges of the folded handkerchief in … - Raymond Chandler

It got dark and the rain-clouded lights of the stores were soaked up by the black street.

You go in through double swing doors. Inside the double doors there is a combination PBX and information desk at which sits one of those ageless women you see around municipal offices everywhere in the world. They were never young and will never be old. They have no beauty, no charm, no style. They don't have to please anybody. They are safe. They are civil without ever quite being polite and intelligent and knowledgeable without any real interest in anything. They are what human beings turn into when they trade life for existence and ambition for security.

I decided I could lose nothing by the soft approach. If that didn't produce for me — and I didn't think it would — nature could take its course and we could bust up the furniture.