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“You see,” he explained to Henderson, “unless I can get somebody to go in with me they won’t come out this branch road except for a price I can’t pay. I’d spoke to Wright about it once before; but he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet—guess you know about how much he talked himself. But I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, and said all the women-folks liked the telephones, and that in this lonesome stretch of road it would be a good thing—well, I said to Harry that that was what I was going to say—though I said at the same time that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John—”
Now, there he was!—saying things he didn't need to say.
Even before Mr. Hale begins to explain why he came by the Wright’s farmhouse, Mrs. Hale has a “sinking feeling” that he will “say unnecessary things” that might bias the attorney and sheriff against Minnie Wright. But Mr. Hale enjoys talking. He likes the attention of others and will toss out quips he thinks are amusing, or ramble to hold the floor. Here, Mrs. Hale’s concern proves more valid the longer Mr. Hale talks. He has no sense that his asides and off-topic comments cast John Wright as a sullen neighbor or an uncaring husband, descriptions that could provide context for how Minnie might behave toward her husband if she despaired or became infuriated. Unlike his wife, Mr. Hale doesn’t know when to speak and when to hold back, much less when to stay quiet.
Martha Hale sprang up, her hands tight together, looking at that other woman, with whom it rested. At first she could not see her eyes, for the sheriff’s wife had not turned back since she turned away at that suggestion of being married to the law. But now Mrs. Hale made her turn back. Her eyes made her turn back. Slowly, unwillingly, Mrs. Peters turned her head until her eyes met the eyes of the other woman. There was a moment when they held each other in a steady, burning look in which there was no evasion nor flinching. Then Martha Hale’s eyes pointed the way to the basket in which was hidden the thing that would make certain the conviction of the other woman—that woman who was not there and yet who had been there with them all through that hour.
These lines occur after Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have discussed the toll that loneliness and “stillness” can take. Mr. Henderson has just laughingly declared that Mrs. Peters can be trusted because she is “married to the law,” a statement to which she quietly objects. The “it” in the phrase “with whom it rested” refers to the decision about what to do with the bird. Mrs. Hale’s mind is made up, but whether Mrs. Peters will agree to stay silent so that Minnie has a chance to go free is unclear. Words are risky; the men may come back in at any moment. With silent gazes, the women agree to shield Minnie. This is clear even though Mrs. Peters flubs her attempt to hide the box, which Mrs. Hale stuffs into her coat pocket just in time. In their earlier discussion of Minnie, silence often communicates what they cannot bring themselves to say. Now silence protects Minnie.
