camille, The quote that you provided is from the best selling author Agathe Christie. She is writing about the detective, Hercule Poirot. With his waxed moustache and his "little grey cells,"he was "meticulous, a tidy little man, always neat and orderly, with a slight flavour of absurdity about him. With his: "waxed moustache"....Poirot has a long moustache. He puts wax on it and shapes it. “little grey cells” .....his brain cells. He relies on his intelligence to solve his murder cases. Poirot refers to his intellectual ability as his “little grey cells” he was: "meticulous”…..he takes great care about details “a tidy little man, always neat and orderly”….he takes care about the way he looks and acts. “ with a slight flavor of absurdity” … he has a slight quality of the ridiculous or the illogical …. just a little bit silly Here is a picture of the televison version of Hercule Poirot. http://girlonthepark.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/poirot-suchet.jpg Denis