Pretty pass

"Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can't give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!"

The prisoner of unknown bandits, hurried he knew not whence, a pretty pass for an adventurer.

When any of his descendants chose to take him to task for the crudeness of his manners he was accustomed to look them coldly over and retort that things had come to a pretty pass when comparatively new people ventured to instruct the oldest of the old settlers as to what was or was not good form.

Things have come to a pretty pass when a highly regarded City law firm does not know whether it is employing its own staff legally.