“I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, shan’t I?” Emma could not resist. “Ah! ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me – but you will be limited as to number – only three at once.”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 43. The most cruel incident in the novel happens at the Box Hill picnic, when Emma mocks Miss Bates. Frank Churchill makes up a game, with each person having to say one very clever thing, two moderately clever, or three dull things. When Miss Bates says that she has no trouble saying three dull things, Emma cruelly jokes that she will have trouble stopping at three. This is a rather cheap jibe at Miss Bates’s talkative nature.