#go back to the Gutenberg if you want to see the passage formatted correctly

[secretmellowblog]

I love this exchange between Fauchelevent and the prioress because it captures the Exact awkward feeling of when you make a joke but the person you’re talking to doesn’t Get It, and asks what you mean, but you kinda want to move on now because the joke didn’t land, but they’re still trying to figure out what you mean, and it’s just awkward

“No other man than you can or must enter that chamber. See to that. A fine sight it would be, to see a man enter the dead-room!”

“More often!”

“Hey?”

“More often!”

“What do you say?”

“I say more often.”

“More often than what?”

“Reverend Mother, I did not say more often than what, I said more often.”

“I don’t understand you. Why do you say more often?”

“In order to speak like you, reverend Mother.”

“But I did not say ‘more often.’”

At that moment, nine o’clock struck.

“At nine o’clock in the morning and at all hours, praised and adored be the most Holy Sacrament of the altar,” said the prioress.

“Amen,” said Fauchelevent.

The clock struck opportunely. It cut “more often” short. It is probable, that had it not been for this, the prioress and Fauchelevent would never have unravelled that skein.