Dear Mary: What do I do when the pizzas arrive at the opening of my art show?

Q. I spent a week in a house party abroad, with an elderly and extremely polite friend of mine and his wife among my fellow guests. Our hostess really pulled out the stops for us — I have never been so well looked after in my life. While I was exchanging emails with her after the holiday, it emerged that she had not received a thank-you letter from our mutual friend, which was very odd as he is punctilious and always writes very good B&Bs at once. Three weeks later I was at a party with the couple in question and I revealed that our hostess was hurt that she had not received any communication from him about our holiday. He was appalled and said that he had written to her at once. This evening, when I rang him, he had just been on the telephone to our hostess about another matter, but had felt too awkward to say that he knew she thought he had been very rude in not having written to her.