Marta's regular manner was so assured that her inaugural spoonerism took everyone by surprise. (spoonerism: initial-sound transposition, switched word beginnings) Instead of offering a fine stone head, she offered a fine headstone. The owner looked first perturbed and then positively irate. (perturbed: troubled, unsettled, disturbed; irate: furious, incensed, enraged) The mistake had a funereal connotation quite at odds with the sculptor's intention. (funereal: mournful, somber, lugubrious; connotation: association, implication, overtone)
Her next sentence was labored. (labored: strained, forced, contrived) A hiccup gave it a spasmodic rhythm. (spasmodic: fitful, intermittent, irregular) She could feel her earlier diffidence returning and heard the familiar monotone into which she fell whenever she was afraid. (diffidence: self-doubt, shyness, hesitancy; monotone: drone, droning, unvarying tone) From the front row her father gave an extravagant wink. His bald pate resembled the bust so closely that the comparison occurred to everyone at once. (pate: head, crown)
"If the stone one seems too dear," she said, "the other one is available to carry it home." A jovial bidder raised a hand. (jovial: jolly, genial, merry) The owner's indignation dissolved. (indignation: outrage, resentment, umbrage) When the hammer came down the sculptor offered her father a sitting, and the auctioneer the job of naming his next piece.