Afterwards, Talleyrand chatted with Anning about some trivial matters and then stood up to take his leave.
Anning: "I won't see you out, I'm quite busy these days, and there's a queue of people waiting to see me."
No sooner had Anning finished speaking than someone knocked on the door.
"Come in!" He called.
The door opened, and a middle-aged man entered.
"Hello, Mr. Frost!" He said in heavily accented French.
Talleyrand had not yet left and interjected: "You should address him as General."
"Oh sorry, General!" The visitor immediately corrected himself, "I apologize, I'm not very familiar with these formalities."
Talleyrand: "You should be grateful that General Frost is not one for formalities; indeed, he's famously laid-back."
Anning looked at Talleyrand, thinking to himself that this walking flattery machine never missed a chance to butter someone up, and here he was, giving me a couple of pats on the back.
