But you don't understand, said Ford, his expression slowly ripening from a little taken abackness into rank incredulity. "This is the American Express Card. It is the finest way of settling bills known to man. Haven't you read their junk mail?"

More from So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish

• He had read somewhere that the Eskimos had over two hundred different words for snow, without which their conversation would probably have got very monotonous. So they would distinguish between thin snow and thick snow, light snow and heavy snow, sludgy s
• How reliable is he?" asked Fenchurch in a sinking voice. "How reliable?" said Arthur. He gave a hollow laugh. "How shallow is the ocean?" he said. "How cold is the sun?"
• I was being perfectly serious, said Arthur. "It's just the Universe I'm never quite sure about."
• Listen, bud, said Ford, "if I had one Altairan dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say `That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin."
• You'll have to excuse me, said Arthur. "I'm terribly happy."
• Zaphod's calmed down a lot you know. "Really?" said Arthur, clustering hurriedly round Fenchurch to relieve her of the shopping. "Yeah," said Ford, "at least one of his heads is now saner than an emu on acid."