Status Updates From Buddenbrooks

"Her face had the same wide-eyed expression that children put on when someone reading a fairy tale to them is tactless enough to insert some general remarks on morals and duty—a mixture of embarrassment and impatience, piety and boredom."

(Yes, I switched to the library copy, but there's only so many times one is able to face with equanimity one's copy splitting in half during the course of reading.)