Marplot

“The old marplot has discovered the baby,” Monica whispered. “I suppose it cried and woke him up, and now he thinks he's witness to a miracle.”

Unthinking Anglo-Saxons regard him as a Gallic marplot, rather than the great twentieth-century statesman he was – certainly the greatest Frenchman since Napoleon.

Let us argue the point with this pert, unruly, marplot conscience of mine…