带上车子去散步
The impression of being in a pleasant cocoon, far from real life, is heightened by the decisive use of the glass partition between you and the driver. If your previous experience of partitions has been the greasy Plexiglas in taxis, which forces you to bellow your instructions at the driver and makes payment of the fare a process of crushed fingers and muttered oaths, the limo partition will come as a revelation to you. One touch of the button in your armrest and the conversation-proof glass hisses up and stops communication dead. (All professional drivers, for some reason, love to chat. Don’t tolerate it. You’re not paying all that money to listen to a lecture on Bush’s fiscal policies.)
So there you are, a million miles from those yahoos on the street, immune from the weather, protected from small talk from the cockpit, going wherever you want to go in your own controlled environment. A perfect setting for a romantic assignation.
Women love limos. The minute they settle back in the seat they feel pampered and relaxed. They mentally dab a little scent behind each knee. They take a little more to drink than usual. They tend to lean toward you and whisper. They bloom. A date in a stretch is more intimate, more impressive, and far less prone to distraction than a movie and a candle-lit dinner. It is an extremely focused occasion.
A word of warning here. Whether on pleasure or business, it is important to observe chauffeur protocol, and this means curbing your natural warmth. We’re not suggesting rudeness； distant politeness will do very well. In other words, don’t try to shake hands with your chauffeur or ask him how he’s doing. Don’t encourage him to address you by your first name. And don’t ever open the door yourself, even if you have to wait a minute or two while he walks down the length of the car to let you out. These boys are pros, and they respect a pro passenger.
After one or two outings, you will probably start to become more specific in your requirements. You won’t want any old limo. You’ll want a limo in which the details are exactly right. A compact-disc player instead of a tape deck. Leather upholstery rather than cloth. Single-malt scotch, a freshly ironed copy of The Wall Street Journal, a Fax machine, a silver vase of freesias—once you get into the refinements, you’ll never want to get out. But these come later.
While, as we have stated, only a black limo will do, we draw the line at black-tinted windows, for two reasons. First, they encourage autograph hunters, who will sidle up when the car is stopped at a light and peer at you and possibly mistake you for Mick Jagger or, worse, Ivan F. Boesky. And second, they make it virtually impossible for your friends—or, better still, your enemies—to catch a glimpse of you as you place phone calls and come to grips with the crystal decanters. Clear-glass windows are our recommendation, but it’s a matter of personal choice.
In the stretch business, as in most other businesses, there exists a reduced-price trial offer. It works like this: let’s say that you find yourself in Manhattan at the corner of Fifty-fifth and Third one evening around 6:30. All the cabs are taken, but if you make yourself sufficiently obvious as a man in need of transport, it won’t be long before a prowling limo slows down. Hail it. Providing the driver likes the look of you, he’ll stop, because he’s just dropped his passenger and has a couple of hours to kill before picking him up again. Imbued with the spirit of enterprise, the driver will want to use this time profitably. As long as your destination won’t make him late for his pickup, nobody will be the wiser and he’ll be a little richer. The exact price should be agreed on before you get in, but you can be sure that it will be less than a formal arrangement with the limo company.
One trip is all it will take to make you start juggling your disposable income to pay for further expeditions, until the day comes when you will be ready to enjoy the ultimate refinement: taking your stretch for a walk.
A stroll of two or three blocks on a fine spring evening, the great black beast crawling obediently to heel, the bar stocked and waiting, the chauffeur alert to your beckoning finger, a ripple of envy through less fortunate pedestrians marking your progress—now, there’s a way to work up an appetite for dinner.
在你和司机之间断然加装上一道玻璃隔断，一定会更加让你觉得，自己像是蜗居在惬意的蚕茧里，远远隔离在真实世界之外。你以前领教过的士车厢里的隔断吧，是那种油腻腻的树脂玻璃。假如你有事要吩咐司机，都得扯开喉咙大吼；付钱时，手指头也常会卡在洞口，令你忍不住嘟嘟嚷嚷地诅咒一番。但豪华轿车内的隔断就不一样了，于你而言简直是天赐福音。只要轻触一下座椅扶手上的按键，隔音玻璃窗便嘶嘶作响，迅速升起，谈话也就此隔开。（职业司机不知为什么，个个都爱跟人聊天。是可忍，孰不可忍。你付这么些钱，并不是为了听司机就布什的财政政策神侃一通。）
所以，你坐在大轿车里，离大街上那些凡夫俗子相距十万八千里，既不受气候影响，也免遭来自驾驶座的闲话絮叨。爱去哪儿，就去哪儿，而且尽在你的掌控之中。这儿可真是赴浪漫之约的绝佳场所啊。
女士都爱豪华大轿车。她们一靠在座位上，那种备受娇宠、身心松弛的感觉便油然而生。在心理上，就如同在双膝下擦了些许香水，而且酒喝得也比平常多了一点。这时，她们喜欢依偎着你柔声耳语，好像绽放的花朵一般。在大轿车里约会，和看电影、吃烛光晚餐比起来，更容易亲近，更能打动芳心，也可免受外来干扰。在这样的情境里，她们绝不会心有旁骛。
