That I thought it would be 'No'; but that I only didn't say so at once because you wished it." "Very well," said Dick.
It was a minute or so before either spoke again.

Jenny had that delightful and soothing gift which prevents silence from being empty.

It is the same gift, in another form, as that which enables its possessor to put people at their ease.

(It is, I suppose, one of the elements of tact.) Dick had a sense that they were still talking gently and reasonably, though he could not quite understand all that Jenny was meaning.
She interrupted it by a sudden sentence.
"I wonder if it's fair," she said.

"You know I'm all but certain.