Hemingway's The Three Day Blow

In this narrative Hemingway uses a dialog between two main characters to set and move his story. The discussion between the characters is mostly inconsequential small talk between two old friends. Bill and Nick's conversation until Marge is mentioned serves the purpose of setting up the reader's understanding of their characters and relationship. The dialog is pretty much without much emotion or force or meaning and then Hemingway throws in this one profound paragraph on Nick's feelings about what has happened between him and Marge.

Nick said nothing. The liquor had all died out of him and left him alone. Bill wasn't there. He wasn't sitting in front of the fire or going fishing tomorrow with Bill and his dad or any thing. He wasn't drunk. It was all gone. All he knew was that he had once had Marjorie and that he had lost her. She was gone and he had sent her away. That was all that mattered. He might never see her again. Probably he never would. It was all gone, finished.

Here Hemingway's sentence structure is in short, to the point sentences. This gives the feeling of abruptness and importance. To me, each sentence was like a separate thought metaphorically hitting the character. It conveyed to me the desperation and sudden hopelessness the character feels.
Then Bill continues to congratulate Nick on his escape from marriage. The way the dialog continues with short sentences and fades back into inconsequential conversation. By doing this, Hemingway is highlighting and emphasizing the few non-dialog paragraphs which, to me, contain the really meaningful content.