"Do you want to have a good time?"

...said a voice from a doorway.

"As far as I can tell," said Ford,
"I'm having one. Thanks."

"Are you rich?" said another.

This made Ford laugh.

He turned and opened his arms in a wide gesture.
"Do I look rich?" he said.

"Don't know," said the girl. "Maybe, maybe not.
Maybe you'll get rich.
I have a very special service for rich people ..."

"Oh yes?" said Ford, intrigued
but careful. "And what's that?"

"I tell them it's OK to be rich."

Gunfire erupted from a window high above them,
but it was only a bass player getting shot
for playing the wrong riff three times in a row,
and bass players are two a penny in Han Dold City.

Ford stopped and peered into the dark doorway.

"You what?" he said.

The girl laughed and stepped forward a little
out of the shadow.
She was tall, and had that kind of
self-possessed shyness which is a great trick
if you can do it.

"It's my big number," she said.
"I have a Master's degree in Social Economics
and can be very convincing.
People love it..."

From "So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish", by the late Douglas Adams