Q. We normally drive guests departing our house in France to our nearest station for trains connecting them to Eurostar. One departing guest, an attractive divorcee, had half an hour to kill, so I suggested a croissant and coffee, which meant lugging her very heavy case over to the café and back again to the station where, as I sank exhaustedly onto the bench with the case between us, my elbow activated a battery-driven item in the suitcase. Toothbrush? — I wondered — or something of a more intimate nature? Was it polite to ignore the buzzing, and feign deafness? Or should I have mentioned it, risking some embarrassed scrabbling in the case?
A.T., London SW3
A. On this occasion your silence will have spoken louder than words. When sudden onset vibrating of this sort occurs, the protocol is to draw attention to it, blinking blandly as you insist that a ‘toothbrush has gone off’.
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