Final answer:
The implied meaning behind the narrator's pause is to emphasize the emotional state or significance of the moment in the story. The correct answer is C) The details are not important to the story, as the pause allows readers to infer the situation without explicit details.
Step-by-step explanation:
The narrator's implication by pausing and not explaining what happened when the Judge came home to dinner is a narrative technique used to let readers infer the situation based on context rather than presenting explicit details.
This creates a sense of anticipation and sometimes reflects the character's reluctance or inability to confront or articulate the events. The given passages indicate various scenarios about dinner settings in different contexts, ranging from a solitary silent dinner, a tense family meal, to a casual outdoor meal.
In the context of the original question, the correct answer about why the narrator pauses and does not explain what happened when the Judge came home to dinner would most likely be C) The details are not important to the story. This is because the pause serves to emphasize the character's emotional state or to highlight the significance of the moment without the need for elaborate explanation.