...of gossip

The salesman found it strange that they had fallen silent in this way ever since he had come in, sipping their aperitifs and putting their glasses on the bar after each swallow. Perhaps he had disturbed them in the midst of an important conversation? He tried to imagine what it could be about. But suddenly he was afraid to guess, and dreaded the possibility that the subject might be broached again, as if their words, without their knowing it, might have concerned him. It would not be difficult to go a good deal further along this irrational course: the words "without their knowing it", for instance, were superfluous, for if his presence had caused them to fall silent - although they were not embarrassed to speak in front of the landlady - it was obviously because they...because "he"... "In front of the landlady", or rather "with" her. And now they were pretending not to know one another. The woman stopped grinding only to refill the coffee mill. The workmen managed to keep another mouthful at the bottoms of their glasses. To all intents and purposes no one had anything to say; yet five minutes before he had seen through the window all three talking animatedly together.

[The Voyeur, Robbe-Grillet, A.]