He put on a French accent, as if that would help, and she quickly found an excuse to leave the room. He wandered about picking up and examining ornaments from shelves, and when I intimated that the silver- and glass-framed wedding portrait of Dominic and Inge he'd pulled from its hook, was fragile and perhaps rather special to them, he made a great show of replacing it exactly as he’d found it, smirking at me while he did so. 'Whatever the little man says,’ he added, and in an attempt to amuse, clicked his heels together and saluted me.