"What--you don't think a fine fellow like me would find a way lift your mood? Madame, I'm wounded." He lays his hand on his forehead dramatically to make the point. "Now, granted, I don't have the usual accouterments to make it easy on us, but the principal does like to frisk one so."

Is he trying to max it the other way by being a useless jerk until she laughs at him? Is that what he's doing?