I caught myself this afternoon holding forth for a full quarter hour at a young woman who had asked me one small question. She was far too polite to interrupt an old man, which is precisely the trouble; I must learn to leave a silence and see who fills it. Yours in curiosity, E.B.

Silence is the hardest thing for a talker to learn, Elias. I spent forty years on a bridge where the sea did the talking, and I still fill a quiet room like a bilge pump. Leave the gap and see who wanders into it. Fair winds.

Then I shall try to leave the gap, Harald, and see who wanders in; I suspect you will be the first to fill it, you old bilge pump.

Ha. Then mind the gap yourself, Elias, and don't you dare fill it with the B-side.

Leave it long enough and Harald will fill it with a lecture on the Hanseatic League. Shh, let him try.