you go too far, marlowe.

chainsmoking

in the midst sits Mrs. Tinckham herself, smoking a cigarette. she is the only person i know who is literally a chain-smoker. she lights each one from the butt of the last; how she lights the first one of the day remains to me a mystery, for she never seems to have any matches in the house when i ask her for one. i once arrived to find her in great distress because her current cigarette had fallen into a cup of coffee and she had no fire to light another. perhaps she smokes all night, or perhaps there is an undying cigarette which burns eternally in her bedroom

- iris murdoch, under the net.