I expected to hear back from them but I never heard a 'whisper'. [=I never heard from them again]
“I've had more than I can stand,” she complained in a 'stage whisper'.
I couldn't hear what they were saying because they were 'whispering'.
(..) I realized that all this time I had been waiting for her. I love you, Susie. I mean, the moment when we really choose to go. At best, you might feel a whisper or the wave of a whisper I was years old when I was murdered (..)2009 The Lovely Bones