Hannibal was glad to see that River had an appetite, a real one, and not just her doing what he asked of her. He dared to hope that it was a good sign, that her recovery from her loss wouldn't be prolonged. He expected there would be mourning, possibly more than one or two instances of it, as she got used to her new life sans the ability to know what others were thinking.
"You've had the ability to glimpse the world of other people's minds." Hannibal nodded, dishing himself up food. "I would expect there's a great silence now, the world is much quieter now."
He had never had a gift like River had before, so he wasn't completely able to sympathize with that, but he knew loss. He knew great loss. On that, he was able to empathize.
"Tell me why you are both worried and relieved." Hannibal was doing his best to not revert into clinical speak, despite how much he wanted to take her in and do more scans, compare them with the ones he already had of her brain, both before and after John Coffey had interacted with her. He wanted very much to see the differences in the way she worked internally.