Nowhere did she see the usual signs of commerce and human activity: horse 
manure, orange peels, barking dogs, running sewers. Somewhat to her alarm, she 
did see an inordinate number of chains. The chains were all of the same, 
somewhat peculiar design, and she saw them everywhere: piled up in heaps on 
streetcorners, overflowing from metal baskets, dangling from rooftops, strung 
between towers.