The mayor knew every nicety of etiquette except how to eat soup without a spoon. (nicety: subtlety, fine distinction, refinement; etiquette: manners, protocol, decorum) He surveyed the customary arrangement of forks with a dignified air. (customary: usual, habitual, traditional; dignified: stately, composed, self-respecting) His overbearing deputy was less discreet. (overbearing: domineering, imperious, dictatorial) This lapse in decorum was an insult, he said. (decorum: propriety, dignity, good manners) It would behoove the committee to reprimand the waiter. (behoove: be advisable for, be appropriate for, be necessary for; reprimand: rebuke, censure, admonish)
A precocious girl at the next table watched the deputy belittle a man old enough to be his father. (precocious: early-blooming, advanced for her age; belittle: disparage, diminish, denigrate) She thought him a boor. (boor: lout, churl, oaf) She could call his behavior boorish and risk a rebuke, or she could slide her spoon across the table. (boorish: uncouth, loutish, oafish; rebuke: reprimand, reproof, scolding) The mayor took it with a bow. The waiter, by now quite composed, placed an ice cream in front of the girl. (composed: calm, collected, poised)
At the end of dinner the mayor turned over his place card. "Soup declined," it read, in his own handwriting. He had filled in the form before he changed his mind. Nobody asked him to apologize. He went to the kitchen anyway, carrying the card in one hand and a dish towel in the other.