"In the meantime we wait for a phone call."
"It's hideous, waiting."
"I know. You should try to think about something else."
"What else is there?"
"Lots of things." I think he tried to name one, and gave up. "Anyway, it isn't good for you to be sitting out here in the cold hall. You'll give yourself pneumonia again."
"People don't give it to themselves, Ralph."
"We won't argue. Come into the sitting room and I'll make you a drink."

- Ross Macdonald, The Far Side of the Dollar, 1965.