Upstairs, in the room where the bookcases are, Harriet wonders if this solitude is how her life will be. Has she returned to her childhood place to seek whatever comfort a happy past can offer? Is that a truer reason than what she told herself at the time? Her thoughts are always a muddle when a love affair ends, the truth befogged; the truth not there at all, it often seems.  Love failed her was what she felt when another relationship crumbled into nothing; love has a way of doing that. And since wondering is company for the companionless, she wonders why it should be so.

From “After Rain,” by William Trevor

With his characteristic perspicacity, William Trevor analyzes lovers’ feelings when a relationship comes to an end.  His sentence “Wondering is company for the companionless,” funnels all the thoughts brewing in a lover’s mind after a love affair has ended, collecting them in a single container full of misunderstandings, unrealistic expectations, and peeled-off blindfolds.    William Trevor’s style of masterfully-constructed short sentences with subtle reversals reminds me of a tango rhythm.