Miscommunications In Conversations

See Miscommunications. 

In The Day Of Their Return, when Chunderban Desai receives Colonel Mattu Luuksson from Orcus, Desai realizes that he is tapping his cigarette holder on the ashtray and stops. 

When I interviewed a school pupil, there was a bothersome crumpling sound while she spoke but not while I spoke. I realized that, under the table, she was holding the paper slip that had informed her of the interview. She crumpled it only when speaking.

Desai does not know whether Mattu's frown means anger or concentration. In CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength, Dimble and Studdock converse. Trying to be charitable toward the younger man, Dimble adopts a fixed facial expression which Studdock misinterprets as disapproval.

I could tell many stories of conversational miscommunications but perhaps they would take us off the point if there is one.

(There is a Father Brown TV series with really good interactions between Brown and the continuing villain, Flambeau. Brown has not heard Flambeau's confession - yet.)