You'll never guess what I heard...

If your roof projects beyond the walls of your house, the overhang is called the "eaves" and this gives rise to the expression "eavesdropping" for secretly listening in to the private conversation of others. But the question is - if you happen to overhear a private conversation, what, if anything, should you do about it?  A couple of occasions recently where we have learned about what someone has been overheard saying which perhaps they would rather we hadn't.  Which raises the question - was the person who overheard these things right to publicise them or should they have kept schtumm?  You can approach this from the point of legality, or - as I would - from the point of manners.  It's rank bad manners to breach a confidence and as far as I am concerned, that's an end of it.  Good manners seem to have gone out of the window lately.