Dear Mary: How do I find out if someone is pregnant or just fat?

Q. I have been horribly caught out with no one to blame but myself. I was sent a large electric blanket coat of the sort you can sit in on a sofa watching television. My family and I all thought it was hideous but I didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the person who kindly gave it to me and wrote a suitably grateful thank-you letter, saying we had been using it nonstop. We had looked it up online and, because it was quite expensive, my daughter said she would return it to the shop in Oxford Street and get me a credit to spend there. When I opened the envelope she returned with I saw there had been a misunderstanding and inside was not a credit note as such, but a printout of a confirmation that the electric coat had been returned to the shop as ‘unsuitable’ and the refund credited to the account of my friend.