DEAR MISS MANNERS: Today I was in a frame shop selecting a mat and frame for a print. I am a graphic designer by profession, and a painter by moonlight (figuratively speaking), and thus have the world’s pickiest color sense — with the exception, so it would seem, of the clerk in the frame store.

I wanted nothing more than to peruse the mat and frame samples myself and take some time making my own decision. The clerk, however, was intent on selecting mat colors herself, while not showing me the many other colors in the book.

She was trying to be helpful, so I didn’t want to appear unappreciative, but I really wanted her to leave me alone to decide for myself. I asked her if she would mind if I looked through the samples myself, and she gave me the sample book, but continued to hover and make unhelpful suggestions.

Hints (“Thanks, I’ll just look through these for a while”) didn’t repel her. Was there a polite way I could have declined her advice and still gotten my print framed? Alas, it’s the only shop in town.

GENTLE READER: When you asked for time alone with the sample book, the polite thing for the clerk to have done would have been to grant it. So Miss Manners has no objection to your acting as if that was what happened. When she spoke up again, you could then have looked up in surprise — as if you did not realize she was still there — thanked her, and explained, “I’m going to just keep looking for a bit.”

After a few repetitions of this, she would have lost interest and wandered off.

Please send your questions to Miss Manners at missmanners.com, by email to [email protected], or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.