M@ quoted The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #2)
Return to the Scholomance - and face an even deadlier graduation - in the stunning …
I did try saying things like, “I won’t bite,” only I said it while seething, so the message that actually got conveyed was that biting would be mild by comparison with whatever I would do instead.
— The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #2) (Page 150)
This line of dialog, with the pronouns slightly shifted to get the POV characters right, would work in a Wodehouse novel describing an interaction between Bertie Wooster and Rodrick Spode.
Scholomance