..of taciturnity

Nobody wore hats in those days, and she did! She wore a hat as if she were going to the races! Askew on the back of her head!

He said nothing. I let him think. And the silence continued. Hubert had always been prone to silences - as if life hung by a thread and foolish talking might snap it. In the silence I could feel that, since Gwen's death, the standards the two of them established and maintained here had in no way changed. What this room liked was still the same.

[Here Is Where We Meet, Berger, J.]