midday
And if I was in your place I 'd go out to eat . You get a breath o ' fresh air ; and a cuppa hot chocolate for a nickel at a drug store , with a free lunch o ' crackers thrown in , 'll do you a sight more good than the best there is in _ this _ dope shop . '' Long before Miss Kirk had finished pouring out advice , the eight-cent lunch of soup , sandwich , and coffee had been slapped down on a dirty tablecloth by a frantic rabbit of a waitress . The big restaurant was dim , even at midday , because its only windows gave upon a narrow court which separated that part of the building from another part of equal height . It was so dark that perhaps the hard-worked females who cleaned it might be excused for passing blemishes sunlight would have thrown into their faces . One did not exactly _ see _ the dirt -LRB- except on the cheap , unbleached `` damask '' flung crookedly over the black oilcloth nailed onto table tops -RRB- ; but , like a cowardly ghost that dares not show itself , in some secret , shuddering way the squalor was able to make its presence felt . Now and then a black beetle pottered across the oilcloth-covered floor ; and though a black beetle may happen anywhere , it potters only where it feels at home , otherwise it scurries about in desperate apology for living .