Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Incipit - A short excerpt from an abridged and simplified version)

THE STORY OF THE DOOR

Few people understood why Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, and Mr. Richard Enfield, his cousin, were friends. They could be seen every Sunday going for long walks about the streets of London, but those who met them never saw them talk to each other, and they seemed happy if an acquaintance turned up and they could break the silence.
It happened on one of these walks that they came down a by-street in a busy quarter of the city. The street was small and what is called quiet, but on weekdays very busy.
Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line of houses was broken by the entrance of a court. And just at that point there was a tall building with no windows. Only a door appeared in the blank wall. The door, which had no bell, was old and without colour. Children played on the steps, schoolboys tried their knives on it, and for thirty years nobody seemed to have driven the children away or to have repaired it.
Mr. Enfield and the lawyer were on the other side of the street, but when they came opposite the door, the former lifted his stick and pointed.
"Did you ever notice that door?"
...

(From "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" R.L. Stevenson - ER Ediz. Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori)