an angel passes

alternative an angel passes by

1. Used to denote an awkward pause.

   There was a momentary silence. Mrs. Oliver said: "Is it twenty-to or twenty past? An angel passing . . . My feet aren't crossed—it must be a black angel!"

   1936, Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table, →ISBN, page 17

   1 more example

   As Case was picking up his beer, one of those strange instants of silence descended, as though a hundred unrelated conversations had simultaneously arrived at the same pause. […] Ratz grunted. “An angel passed.”

   1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 4