GENTLE READER: Your confidence that you are not required to reciprocate in your apartment, though technically correct, startles Miss Manners, as she thinks of the restaurant alternative as an escape clause more than a proper equivalent.

Dear Miss Manners: A pair of neighbors hosted my wife and me for an impromptu dinner, to which we contributed a nice salad. The food was fine, the apartment lovely. We have sent them a thank-you note.

But honestly, I don’t want to reciprocate at all. One of them is a nonstop talker who lacks a “mute” button; the other, though necessarily quieter, is a bit on the supercilious side. We’re sure to see them again.