Hawbury excelled in this.
Now there are several variations in the great art of expression, and each of these is a minor art by itself.

Among these may be enumerated: First, of course, the art of novel-writing.
Second, the art of writing editorials.
Third, the art of writing paragraphs.
After these come all the arts of oratory, letter-writing, essay-writing, and all that sort of thing, among which there is one to which I wish particularly to call attention, and this is: The art of small-talk.
Now this art Hawbury had to an extraordinary degree of perfection.

He knew how to beat out the faintest shred of an idea into an illimitable surface of small-talk.

He never took refuge in the weather.

He left that to bunglers and beginners.