the-trial/data/processed/chapters.json

[
  {
    "chapter_number": 1,
    "title": "Chapter One",
    "content": "One",
    "word_count": 1
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 2,
    "title": "Chapter Two",
    "content": "Arrest--Conversation with Mrs. Grubach--Then Miss Bürstner\n\n\n\n\n\nSomeone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done\n\nnothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested. Every day at eight in\n\nthe morning he was brought his breakfast by Mrs. Grubach's cook--Mrs.\n\nGrubach was his landlady--but today she didn't come. That had never\n\nhappened before. K. waited a little while, looked from his pillow at the\n\nold woman who lived opposite and who was watching him with an\n\ninquisitiveness quite unusual for her, and finally, both hungry and\n\ndisconcerted, rang the bell. There was immediately a knock at the door\n\nand a man entered. He had never seen the man in this house before. He\n\nwas slim but firmly built, his clothes were black and close-fitting,\n\nwith many folds and pockets, buckles and buttons and a belt, all of\n\nwhich gave the impression of being very practical but without making it\n\nvery clear what they were actually for. \"Who are you?\" asked K., sitting\n\nhalf upright in his bed. The man, however, ignored the question as if\n\nhis arrival simply had to be accepted, and merely replied, \"You rang?\"\n\n\"Anna should have brought me my breakfast,\" said K. He tried to work\n\nout who the man actually was, first in silence, just through\n\nobservation and by thinking about it, but the man didn't stay still to\n\nbe looked at for very long. Instead he went over to the door, opened it\n\nslightly, and said to someone who was clearly standing immediately\n\nbehind it, \"He\n\nwants Anna to bring him his breakfast.\" There was a little laughter in\n\nthe neighbouring room, it was not clear from the sound of it whether\n\nthere were several people laughing. The strange man could not have\n\nlearned anything from it that he hadn't known already, but now he said\n\nto K., as if making his report \"It is not possible.\" \"It would be the\n\nfirst time that's happened,\" said K., as he jumped out of bed and\n\nquickly pulled on his trousers. \"I want to see who that is in the next\n\nroom, and why it is that Mrs. Grubach has let me be disturbed in this\n\nway.\" It immediately occurred to him that he needn't have said this out\n\nloud, and that he must to some extent have acknowledged their authority\n\nby doing so, but that didn't seem important to him at the time. That, at\n\nleast, is how the stranger took it, as he said, \"Don't you think you'd\n\nbetter stay where you are?\" \"I want neither to stay here nor to be\n\nspoken to by you until you've introduced yourself.\" \"I meant it for your\n\nown good,\" said the stranger and opened the door, this time without\n\nbeing asked. The next room, which K. entered more slowly than he had\n\nintended, looked at first glance exactly the same as it had the previous\n\nevening. It was Mrs. Grubach's living room, over-filled with furniture,\n\ntablecloths, porcelain and photographs. Perhaps there was a little more\n\nspace in there than usual today, but if so it was not immediately\n\nobvious, especially as the main difference was the presence of a man\n\nsitting by the open window with a book from which he now looked up.\n\n\"You should have stayed in your room! Didn't Franz tell you?\" \"And what\n\nis it you want, then?\" said K., looking back and forth between this new\n\nacquaintance and the one named Franz, who had remained in the doorway.\n\nThrough the open window he noticed the old woman again, who had come\n\nclose to the window opposite so that she could continue to see\n\neverything. She was showing an inquisitiveness that really made it seem\n\nlike she was going senile. \"I want to see Mrs. Grubach ...,\" said K.,\n\nmaking a movement as if tearing himself away from the two men--even\n\nthough they were standing well away from him--and wanted to go. \"No,\"\n\nsaid the man at the window, who threw his book down on a coffee table\n\nand stood up. \"You can't go away when you're under arrest.\" \"That's how\n\nit seems,\" said K. \"And why am I under arrest?\" he then asked. \"That's\n\nsomething we're not allowed to tell you. Go into your room and wait\n\nthere. Proceedings are underway and you'll learn about everything all in\n\ngood time. It's not really part of my job to be friendly towards you\n\nlike this, but I hope no-one, apart from Franz, will hear about it, and\n\nhe's been more friendly towards you than he should have been, under the\n\nrules, himself. If you carry on having as much good luck as you have\n\nbeen with your arresting officers then you can reckon on things going\n\nwell with you.\" K. wanted to sit down, but then he saw that, apart from\n\nthe chair by the window, there was nowhere anywhere in the room where he\n\ncould sit. \"You'll get the chance to see for yourself how true all this\n\nis,\" said Franz and both men then walked up to K. They were\n\nsignificantly bigger than him, especially the second man, who frequently\n\nslapped him on the shoulder. The two of them felt K.'s nightshirt, and\n\nsaid he would now have to wear one that was of much lower quality, but\n\nthat they would keep the nightshirt along with his other underclothes\n\nand return them to him if his case turned out well. \"It's better for you\n\nif you give us the things than if you leave them in the storeroom,\" they\n\nsaid. \"Things have a tendency to go missing in the storeroom, and after\n\na certain amount of time they sell things off, whether the case involved\n\nhas come to an end or not. And cases like this can last a long time,\n\nespecially the ones that have been coming up lately. They'd give you the\n\nmoney they got for them, but it wouldn't be very much as it's not what\n\nthey're offered for them when they sell them that counts, it's how much\n\nthey get slipped on the side, and things like that lose their value\n\nanyway when they get passed on from hand to hand, year after year.\" K.\n\npaid hardly any attention to what they were saying, he did not place\n\nmuch value on what he may have still possessed or on who decided what\n\nhappened to them. It was much more important to him to get a clear\n\nunderstanding of his position, but he could not think clearly while\n\nthese people were here, the second policeman's belly--and they could\n\nonly be policemen--looked friendly enough, sticking out towards him, but\n\nwhen K. looked up and saw his dry, bony face it did not seem to fit\n\nwith the body. His strong nose twisted to one side as if ignoring K. and\n\nsharing an understanding with the other policeman. What sort of people\n\nwere these? What were they talking about? What office did they belong\n\nto? K. was living in a free country, after all, everywhere was at peace,\n\nall laws were decent and were upheld, who was it who dared accost him in\n\nhis own home. He was always inclined to take life as lightly as he\n\ncould, to cross bridges when he came to them, pay no heed for the\n\nfuture, even when everything seemed under threat. But here that did not\n\nseem the right thing to do. He could have taken it all as a joke, a big\n\njoke set up by his colleagues at the bank for some unknown reason, or\n\nalso perhaps because today was his thirtieth birthday, it was all\n\npossible of course, maybe all he had to do was laugh in the policemen's\n\nface in some way and they would laugh with him, maybe they were\n\ntradesmen from the corner of the street, they looked like they might\n\nbe--but he was nonetheless determined, ever since he first caught sight\n\nof the one called Franz, not to lose any slight advantage he might have\n\nhad over these people. There was a very slight risk that people would\n\nlater say he couldn't understand a joke, but--although he wasn't\n\nnormally in the habit of learning from experience--he might also have\n\nhad a few unimportant occasions in mind when, unlike his more cautious\n\nfriends, he had acted with no thought at all for what might follow and\n\nhad been made to suffer for it. He didn't want that to happen again, not\n\nthis time at least; if they were play-acting he would act along with\n\nthem.\n\n\n\nHe still had time. \"Allow me,\" he said, and hurried between the two\n\npolicemen through into his room. \"He seems sensible enough,\" he heard\n\nthem say behind him. Once in his room, he quickly pulled open the drawer\n\nof his writing desk, everything in it was very tidy but in his\n\nagitation he was unable to find the identification documents he was\n\nlooking for straight away. He finally found his bicycle permit and was\n\nabout to go back to the policemen with it when it seemed to him too\n\npetty, so he carried on searching until he found his birth certificate.\n\nJust as he got back in the adjoining room the door on the other side\n\nopened and Mrs. Grubach was about to enter. He only saw her for an\n\ninstant, for as soon as she recognised K. she was clearly embarrassed,\n\nasked for forgiveness and disappeared, closing the door behind her very\n\ncarefully. \"Do come in,\" K. could have said just then. But now he stood\n\nin the middle of the room with his papers in his hand and still looking\n\nat the door which did not open again. He stayed like that until he was\n\nstartled out of it by the shout of the policeman who sat at the little\n\ntable at the open window and, as K. now saw, was eating his breakfast.\n\n\"Why didn't she come in?\" he asked. \"She's not allowed to,\" said the\n\nbig policeman. \"You're under arrest, aren't you?\" \"But how can I be\n\nunder arrest? And how come it's like this?\" \"Now you're starting again,\"\n\nsaid the policeman, dipping a piece of buttered bread in the honeypot.\n\n\"We don't answer questions like that.\" \"You will have to answer them,\"\n\nsaid K. \"Here are my identification papers, now show me yours and I\n\ncertainly want to see the arrest warrant.\" \"Oh, my God!\" said the\n\npoliceman. \"In a position like yours, and you think you can start giving\n\norders, do you. It won't do you any good to get us on the wrong side,\n\neven if you think it will--we're probably more on your side that anyone\n\nelse you know!\" \"That's true, you know, you'd better believe it,\" said\n\nFranz, holding a cup of coffee in his hand which he did not lift to his\n\nmouth but looked at K. in a way that was probably meant to be full of\n\nmeaning but could not actually be understood. K. found himself, without\n\nintending it, in a mute dialogue with Franz, but then slapped his hand\n\ndown on his papers and said, \"Here are my identity documents.\" \"And what\n\ndo you want us to do about it?\" replied the big policeman, loudly. \"The\n\nway you're carrying on, it's worse than a child. What is it you want? Do\n\nyou want to get this great, bloody trial of yours over with quickly by\n\ntalking about ID and arrest warrants with us? We're just coppers, that's\n\nall we are. Junior officers like us hardly know one end of an ID card\n\nfrom another, all we've got to do with you is keep an eye on you for\n\nten hours a day and get paid for it. That's all we are. Mind you, what\n\nwe can do is make sure that the high officials we work for find out\n\njust what sort of person it is they're going to arrest, and why he\n\nshould be arrested, before they issue the warrant. There's no mistake\n\nthere. Our authorities as far as I know, and I only know the lowest\n\ngrades, don't go out looking for guilt among the public; it's the guilt\n\nthat draws them out, like it says in the law, and they have to send us\n\npolice officers out. That's the law. Where d'you think there'd be any\n\nmistake there?\" \"I don't know this law,\" said K. \"So much the worse for\n\nyou, then,\" said the policeman. \"It's probably exists only in your\n\nheads,\" said K., he wanted, in some way, to insinuate his way into the\n\nthoughts of the policemen, to re-shape those thoughts to his benefit or\n\nto make himself at home there. But the policeman just said dismissively,\n\n\"You'll find out when it affects you.\" Franz joined in, and said, \"Look\n\nat this, Willem, he admits he doesn't know the law and at the same time\n\ninsists he's innocent.\" \"You're quite right, but we can't get him to\n\nunderstand a thing,\" said the other. K. stopped talking with them; do I,\n\nhe thought to himself, do I really have to carry on getting tangled up\n\nwith the chattering of base functionaries like this?--and they admit\n\nthemselves that they are of the lowest position. They're talking about\n\nthings of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway.\n\nIt's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of\n\nthemselves. I just need few words with someone of the same social\n\nstanding as myself and everything will be incomparably clearer, much\n\nclearer than a long conversation with these two can make it. He walked\n\nup and down the free space in the room a couple of times, across the\n\nstreet he could see the old woman who, now, had pulled an old man, much\n\nolder than herself, up to the window and had her arms around him. K. had\n\nto put an end to this display, \"Take me to your superior,\" he said. \"As\n\nsoon as he wants to see you. Not before,\" said the policeman, the one\n\ncalled Willem. \"And now my advice to you,\" he added, \"is to go into your\n\nroom, stay calm, and wait and see what's to be done with you. If you\n\ntake our advice, you won't tire yourself out thinking about things to no\n\npurpose, you need to pull yourself together as there's a lot that's\n\ngoing to required of you. You've not behaved towards us the way we\n\ndeserve after being so good to you, you forget that we, whatever we are,\n\nwe're still free men and you're not, and that's quite an advantage. But\n\nin spite of all that we're still willing, if you've got the money, to go\n\nand get you some breakfast from the café over the road.\"\n\n\n\nWithout giving any answer to this offer, K. stood still for some time.\n\nPerhaps, if he opened the door of the next room or even the front door,\n\nthe two of them would not dare to stand in his way, perhaps that would\n\nbe the simplest way to settle the whole thing, by bringing it to a head.\n\nBut maybe they would grab him, and if he were thrown down on the ground\n\nhe would lose all the advantage he, in a certain respect, had over them.\n\nSo he decided on the more certain solution, the way things would go in\n\nthe natural course of events, and went back in his room without another\n\nword either from him or from the policemen.\n\n\n\nHe threw himself down on his bed, and from the dressing table he took\n\nthe nice apple that he had put there the previous evening for his\n\nbreakfast. Now it was all the breakfast he had and anyway, as he\n\nconfirmed as soon as he took his first, big bite of it, it was far\n\nbetter than a breakfast he could have had through the good will of the\n\npolicemen from the dirty café. He felt well and confident, he had failed\n\nto go into work at the bank this morning but that could easily be\n\nexcused because of the relatively high position he held there. Should he\n\nreally send in his explanation? He wondered about it. If nobody believed\n\nhim, and in this case that would be understandable, he could bring Mrs.\n\nGrubach in as a witness, or even the old pair from across the street,\n\nwho probably even now were on their way over to the window opposite. It\n\npuzzled K., at least it puzzled him looking at it from the policemen's\n\npoint of view, that they had made him go into the room and left him\n\nalone there, where he had ten different ways of killing himself. At the\n\nsame time, though, he asked himself, this time looking at it from his\n\nown point of view, what reason he could have to do so. Because those two\n\nwere sitting there in the next room and had taken his breakfast,\n\nperhaps. It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if\n\nhe had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable. Maybe,\n\nif the policemen had not been so obviously limited in their mental\n\nabilities, it could have been supposed that they had come to the same\n\nconclusion and saw no danger in leaving him alone because of it. They\n\ncould watch now, if they wanted, and see how he went over to the\n\ncupboard in the wall where he kept a bottle of good schnapps, how he\n\nfirst emptied a glass of it in place of his breakfast and how he then\n\ntook a second glassful in order to give himself courage, the last one\n\njust as a precaution for the unlikely chance it would be needed.\n\n\n\nThen he was so startled by a shout to him from the other room that he\n\nstruck his teeth against the glass. \"The supervisor wants to see you!\" a\n\nvoice said. It was only the shout that startled him, this curt, abrupt,\n\nmilitary shout, that he would not have expected from the policeman\n\ncalled Franz. In itself, he found the order very welcome. \"At last!\" he\n\ncalled back, locked the cupboard and, without delay, hurried into the\n\nnext room. The two policemen were standing there and chased him back\n\ninto his bedroom as if that were a matter of course. \"What d'you think\n\nyou're doing?\" they cried. \"Think you're going to see the supervisor\n\ndressed in just your shirt, do you? He'd see to it you got a right\n\nthumping, and us and all!\" \"Let go of me for God's sake!\" called K., who\n\nhad already been pushed back as far as his wardrobe, \"if you accost me\n\nwhen I'm still in bed you can't expect to find me in my evening dress.\"\n\n\"That won't help you,\" said the policemen, who always became very quiet,\n\nalmost sad, when K. began to shout, and in that way confused him or, to\n\nsome extent, brought him to his senses. \"Ridiculous formalities!\" he\n\ngrumbled, as he lifted his coat from the chair and kept it in both his\n\nhands for a little while, as if holding it out for the policemen's\n\ninspection. They shook their heads. \"It's got to be a black coat,\"\n\nthey said. At that, K. threw the coat to the floor and said--without\n\nknowing even himself what he meant by it--\"Well it's not going to be the\n\nmain trial, after all.\" The policemen laughed, but continued to insist,\n\n\"It's got to be a black coat.\" \"Well that's alright by me if it makes\n\nthings go any faster,\" said K. He opened the wardrobe himself, spent a\n\nlong time searching through all the clothes, and chose his best black\n\nsuit which had a short jacket that had greatly surprised those who knew\n\nhim, then he also pulled out a fresh shirt and began, carefully, to get\n\ndressed. He secretly told himself that he had succeeded in speeding\n\nthings up by letting the policemen forget to make him have a bath. He\n\nwatched them to see if they might remember after all, but of course it\n\nnever occurred to them, although Willem did not forget to send Franz up\n\nto the supervisor with the message saying that K. was getting dressed.\n\n\n\nOnce he was properly dressed, K. had to pass by Willem as he went\n\nthrough the next room into the one beyond, the door of which was already\n\nwide open. K. knew very well that this room had recently been let to a\n\ntypist called 'Miss Bürstner'. She was in the habit of going out to work\n\nvery early and coming back home very late, and K. had never exchanged\n\nmore than a few words of greeting with her. Now, her bedside table had\n\nbeen pulled into the middle of the room to be used as a desk for these\n\nproceedings, and the supervisor sat behind it. He had his legs crossed,\n\nand had thrown one arm over the backrest of the chair.\n\n\n\nIn one corner of the room there were three young people looking at the\n\nphotographs belonging to Miss Bürstner that had been put into a piece of\n\nfabric on the wall. Hung up on the handle of the open window was a white\n\nblouse. At the window across the street, there was the old pair again,\n\nalthough now their number had increased, as behind them, and far taller\n\nthan they were, stood a man with an open shirt that showed his chest and\n\na reddish goatee beard which he squeezed and twisted with his fingers.\n\n\"Josef K.?\" asked the supervisor, perhaps merely to attract K.'s\n\nattention as he looked round the room. K. nodded. \"I daresay you were\n\nquite surprised by all that's been taking place this morning,\" said the\n\nsupervisor as, with both hands, he pushed away the few items on the\n\nbedside table--the candle and box of matches, a book and a pin cushion\n\nwhich lay there as if they were things he would need for his own\n\nbusiness. \"Certainly,\" said K., and he began to feel relaxed now that,\n\nat last, he stood in front of someone with some sense, someone with whom\n\nhe would be able to talk about his situation. \"Certainly I'm surprised,\n\nbut I'm not in any way very surprised.\" \"You're not very surprised?\"\n\nasked the supervisor, as he positioned the candle in the middle of the\n\ntable and the other things in a group around it. \"Perhaps you don't\n\nquite understand me,\" K. hurriedly pointed out. \"What I mean is ...\"\n\nhere K. broke off what he was saying and looked round for somewhere to\n\nsit. \"I may sit down, mayn't I?\" he asked. \"That's not usual,\" the\n\nsupervisor answered. \"What I mean is ...,\" said K. without delaying a\n\nsecond time, \"that, yes, I am very surprised but when you've been in the\n\nworld for thirty years already and had to make your own way through\n\neverything yourself, which has been my lot, then you become hardened to\n\nsurprises and don't take them too hard. Especially not what's happened\n\ntoday.\" \"Why especially not what's happened today?\" \"I wouldn't want to\n\nsay that I see all of this as a joke, you seem to have gone to too much\n\ntrouble making all these arrangements for that. Everyone in the house\n\nmust be taking part in it as well as all of you, that would be going\n\nbeyond what could be a joke. So I don't want to say that this is a\n\njoke.\" \"Quite right,\" said the supervisor, looking to see how many\n\nmatches were left in the box. \"But on the other hand,\" K. went on,\n\nlooking round at everyone there and even wishing he could get the\n\nattention of the three who were looking at the photographs, \"on the\n\nother hand this really can't be all that important. That follows from\n\nthe fact that I've been indicted, but can't think of the slightest\n\noffence for which I could be indicted. But even that is all beside the\n\npoint, the main question is: Who is issuing the indictment? What office\n\nis conducting this affair? Are you officials? None of you is wearing a\n\nuniform, unless what you are wearing\"--here he turned towards Franz--\"is\n\nmeant to be a uniform, it's actually more of a travelling suit. I\n\nrequire a clear answer to all these questions, and I'm quite sure that\n\nonce things have been made clear we can take our leave of each other on\n\nthe best of terms.\" The supervisor slammed the box of matches down on\n\nthe table. \"You're making a big mistake,\" he said. \"These gentlemen and\n\nI have got nothing to do with your business, in fact we know almost\n\nnothing about you. We could be wearing uniforms as proper and exact as\n\nyou like and your situation wouldn't be any the worse for it. As to\n\nwhether you're on a charge, I can't give you any sort of clear answer to\n\nthat, I don't even know whether you are or not. You're under arrest,\n\nyou're quite right about that, but I don't know any more than that.\n\nMaybe these officers have been chit-chatting with you, well if they have\n\nthat's all it is, chit-chat. I can't give you an answer to your\n\nquestions, but I can give you a bit of advice: You'd better think less\n\nabout us and what's going to happen to you, and think a bit more about\n\nyourself. And stop making all this fuss about your sense of innocence;\n\nyou don't make such a bad impression, but with all this fuss you're\n\ndamaging it. And you ought to do a bit less talking, too. Almost\n\neverything you've said so far has been things we could have taken from\n\nyour behaviour, even if you'd said no more than a few words. And what\n\nyou have said has not exactly been in your favour.\"\n\n\n\nK. stared at the supervisor. Was this man, probably younger than he was,\n\nlecturing him like a schoolmaster. Was he being punished for his honesty\n\nwith a telling off. And was he to learn nothing about the reasons for\n\nhis arrest or those who were arresting him. He became somewhat cross and\n\nbegan to walk up and down. No-one stopped him doing this and he pushed\n\nhis sleeves back, felt his chest, straightened his hair, went over to\n\nthe three men, said, \"It makes no sense,\" at which these three turned\n\nround to face him and came towards him with serious expressions. He\n\nfinally came again to a halt in front of the supervisor's desk. \"State\n\nAttorney Hasterer is a good friend of mine,\" he said, \"can I telephone\n\nhim?\" \"Certainly,\" said the supervisor, \"but I don't know what the point\n\nof that will be, I suppose you must have some private matter you want to\n\ndiscuss with him.\" \"What the point is?\" shouted K., more disconcerted\n\nthat cross. \"Who do you think you are? You want to see some point in it\n\nwhile you're carrying out something as pointless as it could be. It's\n\nenough to make you cry! These gentlemen first accost me, and now they\n\nsit or stand about in here and let me be hauled up in front of you.\n\nWhat point there would be, in telephoning a state attorney when I'm\n\nostensibly under arrest? Very well, I won't make the telephone call.\"\n\n\"You can call him if you want to,\" said the supervisor, stretching his\n\nhand out towards the outer room where the telephone was, \"please, go on,\n\ndo make your phone call.\" \"No, I don't want to any more,\" said K., and\n\nwent over to the window. Across the street, the people were still there\n\nat the window, and it was only now that K. had gone up to his window\n\nthat they seemed to become uneasy about quietly watching what was going\n\non. The old couple wanted to get up but the man behind them calmed them\n\ndown. \"We've got some kind of audience over there,\" called K. to the\n\nsupervisor, quite loudly, as he pointed out with his forefinger. \"Go\n\naway,\" he then called across to them. And the three of them did\n\nimmediately retreat a few steps, the old pair even found themselves\n\nbehind the man who then concealed them with the breadth of his body and\n\nseemed, going by the movements of his mouth, to be saying something\n\nincomprehensible into the distance. They did not disappear entirely,\n\nthough, but seemed to be waiting for the moment when they could come\n\nback to the window without being noticed. \"Intrusive, thoughtless\n\npeople!\" said K. as he turned back into the room. The supervisor may\n\nhave agreed with him, at least K. thought that was what he saw from the\n\ncorner of his eye. But it was just as possible that he had not even been\n\nlistening as he had his hand pressed firmly down on the table and seemed\n\nto be comparing the length of his fingers. The two policemen were\n\nsitting on a chest covered with a coloured blanket, rubbing their knees.\n\nThe three young people had put their hands on their hips and were\n\nlooking round aimlessly. Everything was still, like in some office that\n\nhas been forgotten about. \"Now, gentlemen,\" called out K., and for a\n\nmoment it seemed as if he was carrying all of them on his shoulders, \"it\n\nlooks like your business with me is over with. In my opinion, it's best\n\nnow to stop wondering about whether you're proceeding correctly or\n\nincorrectly, and to bring the matter to a peaceful close with a mutual\n\nhandshake. If you are of the same opinion, then please....\" and he\n\nwalked up to the supervisor's desk and held out his hand to him. The\n\nsupervisor raised his eyes, bit his lip and looked at K.'s outstretched\n\nhand; K. still believed the supervisor would do as he suggested. But\n\ninstead, he stood up, picked up a hard round hat that was laying on\n\nMiss Bürstner's bed and put it carefully onto his head, using both hands\n\nas if trying on a new hat. \"Everything seems so simple to you, doesn't\n\nit,\" he said to K. as he did so, \"so you think we should bring the\n\nmatter to a peaceful close, do you? No, no, that won't do. Mind you, on\n\nthe other hand I certainly wouldn't want you to think there's no hope\n\nfor you. No, why should you think that? You're simply under arrest,\n\nnothing more than that. That's what I had to tell you, that's what I've\n\ndone and now I've seen how you've taken it. That's enough for one day\n\nand we can take our leave of each other, for the time being at least. I\n\nexpect you'll want to go in to the bank now, won't you?\" \"In to the\n\nbank?\" asked K., \"I thought I was under arrest.\" K. said this with a\n\ncertain amount of defiance as, although his handshake had not been\n\naccepted, he was feeling more independent of all these people,\n\nespecially since the supervisor had stood up. He was playing with them.\n\nIf they left, he had decided he would run after them and offer to let\n\nthem arrest him. That's why he even repeated, \"How can I go in to the\n\nbank when I'm under arrest?\" \"I see you've misunderstood me,\" said the\n\nsupervisor who was already at the door. \"It's true that you're under\n\narrest, but that shouldn't stop you from carrying out your job. And\n\nthere shouldn't be anything to stop you carrying on with your usual\n\nlife.\" \"In that case it's not too bad, being under arrest,\" said K., and\n\nwent up close to the supervisor. \"I never meant it should be anything\n\nelse,\" he replied. \"It hardly seems to have been necessary to notify me\n\nof the arrest in that case,\" said K., and went even closer. The others\n\nhad also come closer. All of them had gathered together into a narrow\n\nspace by the door. \"That was my duty,\" said the supervisor. \"A silly\n\nduty,\" said K., unyielding. \"Maybe so,\" replied the supervisor, \"only\n\ndon't let's waste our time talking on like this. I had assumed you'd be\n\nwanting to go to the bank. As you're paying close attention to every\n\nword I'll add this: I'm not forcing you to go to the bank, I'd just\n\nassumed you wanted to. And to make things easier for you, and to let you\n\nget to the bank with as little fuss as possible I've put these three\n\ngentlemen, colleagues of yours, at your disposal.\" \"What's that?\"\n\nexclaimed K., and looked at the three in astonishment. He could only\n\nremember seeing them in their group by the photographs, but these\n\ncharacterless, anaemic young people were indeed officials from his bank,\n\nnot colleagues of his, that was putting it too high and it showed a gap\n\nin the omniscience of the supervisor, but they were nonetheless junior\n\nmembers of staff at the bank. How could K. have failed to see that? How\n\noccupied he must have been with the supervisor and the policemen not to\n\nhave recognised these three! Rabensteiner, with his stiff demeanour and\n\nswinging hands, Kullich, with his blonde hair and deep-set eyes, and\n\nKaminer, with his involuntary grin caused by chronic muscle spasms.\n\n\"Good morning,\" said K. after a while, extending his hand to the\n\ngentlemen as they bowed correctly to him. \"I didn't recognise you at\n\nall. So, we'll go into work now, shall we?\" The gentlemen laughed and\n\nnodded enthusiastically, as if that was what they had been waiting for\n\nall the time, except that K. had left his hat in his room so they all\n\ndashed, one after another, into the room to fetch it, which caused a\n\ncertain amount of embarrassment. K. stood where he was and watched them\n\nthrough the open double doorway, the last to go, of course, was the\n\napathetic Rabensteiner who had broken into no more than an elegant trot.\n\nKaminer got to the hat and K., as he often had to do at the bank,\n\nforcibly reminded himself that the grin was not deliberate, that he in\n\nfact wasn't able to grin deliberately. At that moment Mrs. Grubach\n\nopened the door from the hallway into the living room where all the\n\npeople were. She did not seem to feel guilty about anything at all, and\n\nK., as often before, looked down at the belt of her apron which, for no\n\nreason, cut so deeply into her hefty body. Once downstairs, K., with his\n\nwatch in his hand, decided to take a taxi--he had already been delayed\n\nby half an hour and there was no need to make the delay any longer.\n\nKaminer ran to the corner to summon it, and the two others were making\n\nobvious efforts to keep K. diverted when Kullich pointed to the doorway\n\nof the house on the other side of the street where the large man with\n\nthe blonde goatee beard appeared and, a little embarrassed at first at\n\nletting himself be seen in his full height, stepped back to the wall and\n\nleant against it. The old couple were probably still on the stairs. K.\n\nwas cross with Kullich for pointing out this man whom he had already\n\nseen himself, in fact whom he had been expecting. \"Don't look at him!\"\n\nhe snapped, without noticing how odd it was to speak to free men in this\n\nway. But there was no explanation needed anyway as just then the taxi\n\narrived, they sat inside and set off. Inside the taxi, K. remembered\n\nthat he had not noticed the supervisor and the policemen leaving--the\n\nsupervisor had stopped him noticing the three bank staff and now the\n\nthree bank staff had stopped him noticing the supervisor. This showed\n\nthat K. was not very attentive, and he resolved to watch himself more\n\ncarefully in this respect. Nonetheless, he gave it no thought as he\n\ntwisted himself round and leant over onto the rear shelf of the car to\n\ncatch sight of the supervisor and the policemen if he could. But he\n\nturned back round straight away and leant comfortably into the corner of\n\nthe taxi without even having made the effort to see anyone. Although it\n\ndid not seem like it, now was just the time when he needed some\n\nencouragement, but the gentlemen seemed tired just then, Rabensteiner\n\nlooked out of the car to the right, Kullich to the left and only Kaminer\n\nwas there with his grin at K.'s service. It would have been inhumane to\n\nmake fun of that.\n\n\n\nThat spring, whenever possible, K. usually spent his evenings after\n\nwork--he usually stayed in the office until nine o'clock--with a short\n\nwalk, either by himself or in the company of some of the bank officials,\n\nand then he would go into a pub where he would sit at the regulars'\n\ntable with mostly older men until eleven. There were, however, also\n\nexceptions to this habit, times, for instance, when K. was invited by\n\nthe bank's manager (whom he greatly respected for his industry and\n\ntrustworthiness) to go with him for a ride in his car or to eat dinner\n\nwith him at his large house. K. would also go, once a week, to see a\n\ngirl called Elsa who worked as a waitress in a wine bar through the\n\nnight until late in the morning. During the daytime she only received\n\nvisitors while still in bed.\n\n\n\nThat evening, though,--the day had passed quickly with a lot of hard\n\nwork and many respectful and friendly birthday greetings--K. wanted to\n\ngo straight home. Each time he had any small break from the day's work\n\nhe considered, without knowing exactly what he had in mind, that Mrs.\n\nGrubach's flat seemed to have been put into great disarray by the events\n\nof that morning, and that it was up to him to put it back into order.\n\nOnce order had been restored, every trace of those events would have\n\nbeen erased and everything would take its previous course once more. In\n\nparticular, there was nothing to fear from the three bank officials,\n\nthey had immersed themselves back into their paperwork and there was no\n\nalteration to be seen in them. K. had called each of them, separately or\n\nall together, into his office that day for no other reason than to\n\nobserve them; he was always satisfied and had always been able to let\n\nthem go again.\n\n\n\nAt half past nine that evening, when he arrived back in front of the\n\nbuilding where he lived, he met a young lad in the doorway who was\n\nstanding there, his legs apart and smoking a pipe. \"Who are you?\"\n\nimmediately asked K., bringing his face close to the lad's, as it was\n\nhard to see in the half light of the landing. \"I'm the landlord's son,\n\nsir,\" answered the lad, taking the pipe from his mouth and stepping to\n\none side. \"The landlord's son?\" asked K., and impatiently knocked on the\n\nground with his stick. \"Did you want anything, sir? Would you like me\n\nto fetch my father?\" \"No, no,\" said K., there was something forgiving\n\nin his voice, as if the boy had harmed him in some way and he was\n\nexcusing him. \"It's alright,\" he said then, and went on, but before\n\ngoing up the stairs he turned round once more.\n\n\n\nHe could have gone directly to his room, but as he wanted to speak with\n\nMrs. Grubach he went straight to her door and knocked. She was sat at\n\nthe table with a knitted stocking and a pile of old stockings in front\n\nof her. K. apologised, a little embarrassed at coming so late, but Mrs.\n\nGrubach was very friendly and did not want to hear any apology, she was\n\nalways ready to speak to him, he knew very well that he was her best and\n\nher favourite tenant. K. looked round the room, it looked exactly as it\n\nusually did, the breakfast dishes, which had been on the table by the\n\nwindow that morning, had already been cleared away. \"A woman's hands\n\nwill do many things when no-one's looking,\" he thought, he might himself\n\nhave smashed all the dishes on the spot but certainly would not have\n\nbeen able to carry it all out. He looked at Mrs. Grubach with some\n\ngratitude. \"Why are you working so late?\" he asked. They were now both\n\nsitting at the table, and K. now and then sank his hands into the pile\n\nof stockings. \"There's a lot of work to do,\" she said, \"during the day I\n\nbelong to the tenants; if I'm to sort out my own things there are only\n\nthe evenings left to me.\" \"I fear I may have caused you some exceptional\n\nwork today.\" \"How do you mean, Mr. K.?\" she asked, becoming more\n\ninterested and leaving her work in her lap. \"I mean the men who were\n\nhere this morning.\" \"Oh, I see,\" she said, and went peacefully back to\n\nwhat she was doing, \"that was no trouble, not especially.\" K. looked on\n\nin silence as she took up the knitted stocking once more. She seems\n\nsurprised at my mentioning it, he thought, she seems to think it's\n\nimproper for me to mention it. All the more important for me to do so.\n\nAn old woman is the only person I can speak about it with. \"But it must\n\nhave caused some work for you,\" he said then, \"but it won't happen\n\nagain.\" \"No, it can't happen again,\" she agreed, and smiled at K. in a\n\nway that was almost pained. \"Do you mean that seriously?\" asked K.\n\n\"Yes,\" she said, more gently, \"but the important thing is you mustn't\n\ntake it too hard. There are so many awful things happening in the world!\n\nAs you're being so honest with me, Mr. K., I can admit to you that I\n\nlistened to a little of what was going on from behind the door, and that\n\nthose two policemen told me one or two things as well. It's all to do\n\nwith your happiness, and that's something that's quite close to my\n\nheart, perhaps more than it should be as I am, after all, only your\n\nlandlady. Anyway, so I heard one or two things but I can't really say\n\nthat it's about anything very serious. No. You have been arrested, but\n\nit's not in the same way as when they arrest a thief. If you're arrested\n\nin the same way as a thief, then it's bad, but an arrest like this....\n\nIt seems to me that it's something very complicated--forgive me if I'm\n\nsaying something stupid--something very complicated that I don't\n\nunderstand, but something that you don't really need to understand\n\nanyway.\"\n\n\n\n\"There's nothing stupid about what you've said, Mrs. Grubach, or at\n\nleast I partly agree with you, only, the way I judge the whole thing is\n\nharsher than yours, and think it's not only not something complicated\n\nbut simply a fuss about nothing. I was just caught unawares, that's what\n\nhappened. If I had got up as soon as I was awake without letting myself\n\nget confused because Anna wasn't there, if I'd got up and paid no regard\n\nto anyone who might have been in my way and come straight to you, if I'd\n\ndone something like having my breakfast in the kitchen as an exception,\n\nasked you to bring my clothes from my room, in short, if I had behaved\n\nsensibly then nothing more would have happened, everything that was\n\nwaiting to happen would have been stifled. People are so often\n\nunprepared. In the bank, for example, I am well prepared, nothing of\n\nthis sort could possibly happen to me there, I have my own assistant\n\nthere, there are telephones for internal and external calls in front of\n\nme on the desk, I continually receive visits from people,\n\nrepresentatives, officials, but besides that, and most importantly, I'm\n\nalways occupied with my work, that's to say I'm always alert, it would\n\neven be a pleasure for me to find myself faced with something of that\n\nsort. But now it's over with, and I didn't really even want to talk\n\nabout it any more, only I wanted to hear what you, as a sensible woman,\n\nthought about it all, and I'm very glad to hear that we're in agreement.\n\nBut now you must give me your hand, an agreement of this sort needs to\n\nbe confirmed with a handshake.\"\n\n\n\nWill she shake hands with me? The supervisor didn't shake hands, he\n\nthought, and looked at the woman differently from before, examining her.\n\nShe stood up, as he had also stood up, and was a little self-conscious,\n\nshe hadn't been able to understand everything that K. said. As a result\n\nof this self-consciousness she said something that she certainly did\n\nnot intend and certainly was not appropriate. \"Don't take it so hard,\n\nMr. K.,\" she said, with tears in her voice and also, of course,\n\nforgetting the handshake. \"I didn't know I was taking it hard,\" said K.,\n\nfeeling suddenly tired and seeing that if this woman did agree with him\n\nit was of very little value.\n\n\n\nBefore going out the door he asked, \"Is Miss Bürstner home?\" \"No,\" said\n\nMrs. Grubach, smiling as she gave this simple piece of information,\n\nsaying something sensible at last. \"She's at the theatre. Did you want\n\nto see her? Should I give her a message?\" \"I, er, I just wanted to have\n\na few words with her.\" \"I'm afraid I don't know when she's coming in;\n\nshe usually gets back late when she's been to the theatre.\" \"It really\n\ndoesn't matter,\" said K. his head hanging as he turned to the door to\n\nleave, \"I just wanted to give her my apology for taking over her room\n\ntoday.\" \"There's no need for that, Mr. K., you're too conscientious, the\n\nyoung lady doesn't know anything about it, she hasn't been home since\n\nearly this morning and everything's been tidied up again, you can see\n\nfor yourself.\" And she opened the door to Miss Bürstner's room. \"Thank\n\nyou, I'll take your word for it,\" said K., but went nonetheless over to\n\nthe open door. The moon shone quietly into the unlit room. As far as\n\ncould be seen, everything was indeed in its place, not even the blouse\n\nwas hanging on the window handle. The pillows on the bed looked\n\nremarkably plump as they lay half in the moonlight. \"Miss Bürstner often\n\ncomes home late,\" said K., looking at Mrs. Grubach as if that were her\n\nresponsibility. \"That's how young people are!\" said Mrs. Grubach to\n\nexcuse herself. \"Of course, of course,\" said K., \"but it can be taken\n\ntoo far.\" \"Yes, it can be,\" said Mrs. Grubach, \"you're so right, Mr. K.\n\nPerhaps it is in this case. I certainly wouldn't want to say anything\n\nnasty about Miss Bürstner, she is a good, sweet girl, friendly, tidy,\n\npunctual, works hard, I appreciate all that very much, but one thing is\n\ntrue, she ought to have more pride, be a bit less forthcoming. Twice\n\nthis month already, in the street over the way, I've seen her with a\n\ndifferent gentleman. I really don't like saying this, you're the only\n\none I've said this to, Mr. K., I swear to God, but I'm going to have no\n\nchoice but to have a few words with Miss Bürstner about it myself. And\n\nit's not the only thing about her that I'm worried about.\" \"Mrs.\n\nGrubach, you are on quite the wrong track,\" said K., so angry that he\n\nwas hardly able to hide it, \"and you have moreover misunderstood what I\n\nwas saying about Miss Bürstner, that is not what I meant. In fact I warn\n\nyou quite directly not to say anything to her, you are quite mistaken, I\n\nknow Miss Bürstner very well and there is no truth at all in what you\n\nsay. And what's more, perhaps I'm going to far, I don't want to get in\n\nyour way, say to her whatever you see fit. Good night.\" \"Mr. K.,\" said\n\nMrs. Grubach as if asking him for something and hurrying to his door\n\nwhich he had already opened, \"I don't want to speak to Miss Bürstner at\n\nall, not yet, of course I'll continue to keep an eye on her but you're\n\nthe only one I've told what I know. And it is, after all something that\n\neveryone who lets rooms has to do if she's to keep the house decent,\n\nthat's all I'm trying to do.\" \"Decent!\" called out K. through the crack\n\nin the door, \"if you want to keep the house decent you'll first have to\n\ngive me notice.\" Then he slammed the door shut, there was a gentle\n\nknocking to which he paid no more attention.\n\n\n\nHe did not feel at all like going to bed, so he decided to stay up, and\n\nthis would also give him the chance to find out when Miss Bürstner would\n\narrive home. Perhaps it would also still be possible, even if a little\n\ninappropriate, to have a few words with her. As he lay there by the\n\nwindow, pressing his hands to his tired eyes, he even thought for a\n\nmoment that he might punish Mrs. Grubach by persuading Miss Bürstner to\n\ngive in her notice at the same time as he would. But he immediately\n\nrealised that that would be shockingly excessive, and there would even\n\nbe the suspicion that he was moving house because of the incidents of\n\nthat morning. Nothing would have been more nonsensical and, above all,\n\nmore pointless and contemptible.\n\n\n\nWhen he had become tired of looking out onto the empty street he\n\nslightly opened the door to the living room so that he could see anyone\n\nwho entered the flat from where he was and lay down on the couch. He lay\n\nthere, quietly smoking a cigar, until about eleven o'clock. He wasn't\n\nable to hold out longer than that, and went a little way into the\n\nhallway as if in that way he could make Miss Bürstner arrive sooner. He\n\nhad no particular desire for her, he could not even remember what she\n\nlooked like, but now he wanted to speak to her and it irritated him that\n\nher late arrival home meant this day would be full of unease and\n\ndisorder right to its very end. It was also her fault that he had not\n\nhad any dinner that evening and that he had been unable to visit Elsa\n\nas he had intended. He could still make up for both of those things,\n\nthough, if he went to the wine bar where Elsa worked. He wanted to do so\n\neven later, after the discussion with Miss Bürstner.\n\n\n\nIt was already gone half past eleven when someone could be heard in the\n\nstairway. K., who had been lost in his thoughts in the hallway, walking\n\nup and down loudly as if it were his own room, fled behind his door.\n\nMiss Bürstner had arrived. Shivering, she pulled a silk shawl over her\n\nslender shoulders as she locked the door. The next moment she would\n\ncertainly go into her room, where K. ought not to intrude in the middle\n\nof the night; that meant he would have to speak to her now, but,\n\nunfortunately, he had not put the electric light on in his room so that\n\nwhen he stepped out of the dark it would give the impression of being an\n\nattack and would certainly, at the very least, have been quite alarming.\n\nThere was no time to lose, and in his helplessness he whispered through\n\nthe crack of the door, \"Miss Bürstner.\" It sounded like he was pleading\n\nwith her, not calling to her. \"Is there someone there?\" asked Miss\n\nBürstner, looking round with her eyes wide open. \"It's me,\" said K. and\n\ncame out. \"Oh, Mr. K.!\" said Miss Bürstner with a smile. \"Good Evening,\"\n\nand offered him her hand. \"I wanted to have a word with you, if you\n\nwould allow me?\" \"Now?\" asked Miss Bürstner, \"does it have to be now? It\n\nis a little odd, isn't it?\" \"I've been waiting for you since nine\n\no'clock.\" \"Well, I was at the theatre, I didn't know anything about you\n\nwaiting for me.\" \"The reason I need to speak to you only came up\n\ntoday.\" \"I see, well I don't see why not, I suppose, apart from being\n\nso tired I could drop. Come into my room for a few minutes then. We\n\ncertainly can't talk out here, we'd wake everyone up and I think that\n\nwould be more unpleasant for us than for them. Wait here till I've put\n\nthe light on in my room, and then turn the light down out here.\" K. did\n\nas he was told, and then even waited until Miss Bürstner came out of her\n\nroom and quietly invited him, once more, to come in. \"Sit down,\" she\n\nsaid, indicating the ottoman, while she herself remained standing by\n\nthe bedpost despite the tiredness she had spoken of; she did not even\n\ntake off her hat, which was small but decorated with an abundance of\n\nflowers. \"What is it you wanted, then? I'm really quite curious.\" She\n\ngently crossed her legs. \"I expect you'll say,\" K. began, \"that the\n\nmatter really isn't all that urgent and we don't need to talk about it\n\nright now, but....\" \"I never listen to introductions,\" said Miss\n\nBürstner. \"That makes my job so much easier,\" said K. \"This morning, to\n\nsome extent through my fault, your room was made a little untidy, this\n\nhappened because of people I did not know and against my will but, as I\n\nsaid, because of my fault; I wanted to apologise for it.\" \"My room?\"\n\nasked Miss Bürstner, and instead of looking round the room scrutinised\n\nK. \"It is true,\" said K., and now, for the first time, they looked each\n\nother in the eyes, \"there's no point in saying exactly how this came\n\nabout.\" \"But that's the interesting thing about it,\" said Miss Bürstner.\n\n\"No,\" said K. \"Well then,\" said Miss Bürstner, \"I don't want to force my\n\nway into any secrets, if you insist that it's of no interest I won't\n\ninsist. I'm quite happy to forgive you for it, as you ask, especially as\n\nI can't see anything at all that's been left untidy.\" With her hand laid\n\nflat on her lower hip, she made a tour around the room. At the mat where\n\nthe photographs were she stopped. \"Look at this!\" she cried. \"My\n\nphotographs really have been put in the wrong places. Oh, that's\n\nhorrible. Someone really has been in my room without permission.\" K.\n\nnodded, and quietly cursed Kaminer who worked at his bank and who was\n\nalways active doing things that had neither use nor purpose. \"It is\n\nodd,\" said Miss Bürstner, \"that I'm forced to forbid you to do something\n\nthat you ought to have forbidden yourself to do, namely to come into my\n\nroom when I'm not here.\" \"But I did explain to you,\" said K., and went\n\nover to join her by the photographs, \"that it wasn't me who interfered\n\nwith your photographs; but as you don't believe me I'll have to admit\n\nthat the investigating committee brought along three bank employees with\n\nthem, one of them must have touched your photographs and as soon as I\n\nget the chance I'll ask to have him dismissed from the bank. Yes, there\n\nwas an investigating committee here,\" added K., as the young lady was\n\nlooking at him enquiringly. \"Because of you?\" she asked. \"Yes,\" answered\n\nK. \"No!\" the lady cried with a laugh. \"Yes, they were,\" said K., \"you\n\nbelieve that I'm innocent then, do you?\" \"Well now, innocent ...\" said\n\nthe lady, \"I don't want to start making any pronouncements that might\n\nhave serious consequences, I don't really know you after all, it means\n\nthey're dealing with a serious criminal if they send an investigating\n\ncommittee straight out to get him. But you're not in custody now--at\n\nleast I take it you've not escaped from prison considering that you seem\n\nquite calm--so you can't have committed any crime of that sort.\" \"Yes,\"\n\nsaid K., \"but it might be that the investigating committee could see\n\nthat I'm innocent, or not so guilty as had been supposed.\" \"Yes, that's\n\ncertainly a possibility,\" said Miss Bürstner, who seemed very\n\ninterested. \"Listen,\" said K., \"you don't have much experience in legal\n\nmatters.\" \"No, that's true, I don't,\" said Miss Bürstner, \"and I've\n\noften regretted it, as I'd like to know everything and I'm very\n\ninterested in legal matters. There's something peculiarly attractive\n\nabout the law, isn't there. But I'll certainly be perfecting my\n\nknowledge in this area, as next month I start work in a legal office.\"\n\n\"That's very good,\" said K., \"that means you'll be able to give me some\n\nhelp with my trial.\" \"That could well be,\" said Miss Bürstner, \"why not?\n\nI like to make use of what I know.\" \"I mean it quite seriously,\" said\n\nK., \"or at least, half seriously, as you do. This affair is too petty to\n\ncall in a lawyer, but I could make good use of someone who could give me\n\nadvice.\" \"Yes, but if I'm to give you advice I'll have to know what it's\n\nall about,\" said Miss Bürstner. \"That's exactly the problem,\" said K.,\n\n\"I don't know that myself.\" \"So you have been making fun of me, then,\"\n\nsaid Miss Bürstner exceedingly disappointed, \"you really ought not to\n\ntry something like that on at this time of night.\" And she stepped away\n\nfrom the photographs where they had stood so long together. \"Miss\n\nBürstner, no,\" said K., \"I'm not making fun of you. Please believe me!\n\nI've already told you everything I know. More than I know, in fact, as\n\nit actually wasn't even an investigating committee, that's just what I\n\ncalled them because I don't know what else to call them. There was no\n\ncross questioning at all, I was merely arrested, but by a committee.\"\n\nMiss Bürstner sat on the ottoman and laughed again. \"What was it like\n\nthen?\" she asked. \"It was terrible,\" said K., although his mind was no\n\nlonger on the subject, he had become totally absorbed by Miss Bürstner's\n\ngaze who was supporting her chin on one hand--the elbow rested on the\n\ncushion of the ottoman--and slowly stroking her hip with the other.\n\n\"That's too vague,\" said Miss Bürstner. \"What's too vague?\" asked K.\n\nThen he remembered himself and asked, \"Would you like me to show you\n\nwhat it was like?\" He wanted to move in some way but did not want to\n\nleave. \"I'm already tired,\" said Miss Bürstner. \"You arrived back so\n\nlate,\" said K. \"Now you've started telling me off. Well I suppose I\n\ndeserve it as I shouldn't have let you in here in the first place, and\n\nit turns out there wasn't even any point.\" \"Oh, there was a point,\n\nyou'll see now how important a point it was,\" said K. \"May I move this\n\ntable away from your bedside and put it here?\" \"What do you think you're\n\ndoing?\" said Miss Bürstner. \"Of course you can't!\" \"In that case I\n\ncan't show you,\" said K., quite upset, as if Miss Bürstner had committed\n\nsome incomprehensible offence against him. \"Alright then, if you need it\n\nto show what you mean, just take the bedside table then,\" said Miss\n\nBürstner, and after a short pause added in a weak voice, \"I'm so tired\n\nI'm allowing more than I ought to.\" K. put the little table in the\n\nmiddle of the room and sat down behind it. \"You have to get a proper\n\nidea of where the people were situated, it is very interesting. I'm the\n\nsupervisor, sitting over there on the chest are two policemen, standing\n\nnext to the photographs there are three young people. Hanging on the\n\nhandle of the window is a white blouse--I just mention that by the way.\n\nAnd now it begins. Ah yes, I'm forgetting myself, the most important\n\nperson of all, so I'm standing here in front of the table. The\n\nsupervisor is sitting extremely comfortably with his legs crossed and\n\nhis arm hanging over the backrest here like some layabout. And now it\n\nreally does begin. The supervisor calls out as if he had to wake me up,\n\nin fact he shouts at me, I'm afraid, if I'm to make it clear to you,\n\nI'll have to shout as well, and it's nothing more than my name that he\n\nshouts out.\" Miss Bürstner, laughing as she listened to him, laid her\n\nforefinger on her mouth so that K. would not shout, but it was too late.\n\nK. was too engrossed in his role and slowly called out, \"Josef K.!\" It\n\nwas not as loud as he had threatened, but nonetheless, once he had\n\nsuddenly called it out, the cry seemed gradually to spread itself all\n\nround the room.\n\n\n\nThere was a series of loud, curt and regular knocks at the door of the\n\nadjoining room. Miss Bürstner went pale and laid her hand on her heart.\n\nK. was especially startled, as for a moment he had been quite unable to\n\nthink of anything other than the events of that morning and the girl for\n\nwhom he was performing them. He had hardly pulled himself together when\n\nhe jumped over to Miss Bürstner and took her hand. \"Don't be afraid,\" he\n\nwhispered, \"I'll put everything right. But who can it be? It's only the\n\nliving room next door, nobody sleeps in there.\" \"Yes they do,\" whispered\n\nMiss Bürstner into K.'s ear, \"a nephew of Mrs. Grubach's, a captain in\n\nthe army, has been sleeping there since yesterday. There's no other room\n\nfree. I'd forgotten about it too. Why did you have to shout like that?\n\nYou've made me quite upset.\" \"There is no reason for it,\" said K., and,\n\nnow as she sank back onto the cushion, kissed her forehead. \"Go away, go\n\naway,\" she said, hurriedly sitting back up, \"get out of here, go, what\n\nis it you want, he's listening at the door, he can hear everything.\n\nYou're causing me so much trouble!\" \"I won't go,\" said K., \"until you've\n\ncalmed down a bit. Come over into the other corner of the room, he\n\nwon't be able to hear us there.\" She let him lead her there. \"Don't\n\nforget,\" he said, \"although this might be unpleasant for you you're not\n\nin any real danger. You know how much esteem Mrs. Grubach has for me,\n\nshe's the one who will make all the decisions in this, especially as the\n\ncaptain is her nephew, but she believes everything I say without\n\nquestion. What's more, she has borrowed a large sum of money from me and\n\nthat makes her dependent on me. I will confirm whatever you say to\n\nexplain our being here together, however inappropriate it might be, and\n\nI guarantee to make sure that Mrs. Grubach will not only say she\n\nbelieves the explanation in public but will believe it truly and\n\nsincerely. You will have no need to consider me in any way. If you wish\n\nto let it be known that I have attacked you then Mrs. Grubach will be\n\ninformed of such and she will believe it without even losing her trust\n\nin me, that's how much respect she has for me.\" Miss Bürstner looked at\n\nthe floor in front of her, quiet and a little sunk in on herself. \"Why\n\nwould Mrs. Grubach not believe that I've attacked you?\" added K. He\n\nlooked at her hair in front of him, parted, bunched down, reddish and\n\nfirmly held in place. He thought she would look up at him, but without\n\nchanging her manner she said, \"Forgive me, but it was the suddenness of\n\nthe knocking that startled me so much, not so much what the consequences\n\nof the captain being here might be. It was all so quiet after you'd\n\nshouted, and then there was the knocking, that's what made me so\n\nshocked, and I was sitting right by the door, the knocking was right\n\nnext to me. Thank you for your suggestions, but I won't accept them. I\n\ncan bear the responsibility for anything that happens in my room myself,\n\nand I can do so with anyone. I'm surprised you don't realise just how\n\ninsulting your suggestions are and what they imply about me, although I\n\ncertainly acknowledge your good intentions. But now, please go, leave me\n\nalone, I need you to go now even more than I did earlier. The couple of\n\nminutes you asked for have grown into half an hour, more than half an\n\nhour now.\" K. took hold of her hand, and then of her wrist, \"You're not\n\ncross with me, though?\" he said. She pulled her hand away and answered,\n\n\"No, no, I'm never cross with anyone.\" He grasped her wrist once more,\n\nshe tolerated it now and, in that way, led him to the door. He had\n\nfully intended to leave. But when he reached the door he came to a halt\n\nas if he hadn't expected to find a door there, Miss Bürstner made use of\n\nthat moment to get herself free, open the door, slip out into the\n\nhallway and gently say to K. from there, \"Now, come along, please.\n\nLook,\" she pointed to the captain's door, from under which there was a\n\nlight shining, \"he's put a light on and he's laughing at us.\" \"Alright,\n\nI'm coming,\" said K., moved forward, took hold of her, kissed her on\n\nthe mouth and then over her whole face like a thirsty animal lapping\n\nwith its tongue when it eventually finds water. He finally kissed her on\n\nher neck and her throat and left his lips pressed there for a long time.\n\nHe did not look up until there was a noise from the captain's room.\n\n\"I'll go now,\" he said, he wanted to address Miss Bürstner by her\n\nChristian name, but did not know it. She gave him a tired nod, offered\n\nhim her hand to kiss as she turned away as if she did not know what she\n\nwas doing, and went back into her room with her head bowed. A short\n\nwhile later, K. was lying in his bed. He very soon went to sleep, but\n\nbefore he did he thought a little while about his behaviour, he was\n\nsatisfied with it but felt some surprise that he was not more satisfied;\n\nhe was seriously worried about Miss Bürstner because of the captain.",
    "word_count": 11129
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 3,
    "title": "Chapter Three",
    "content": "Two",
    "word_count": 1
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 4,
    "title": "Chapter Four",
    "content": "First Cross-examination\n\n\n\n\n\nK. was informed by telephone that there would be a small hearing\n\nconcerning his case the following Sunday. He was made aware that these\n\ncross examinations would follow one another regularly, perhaps not every\n\nweek but quite frequently. On the one hand it was in everyone's interest\n\nto bring proceedings quickly to their conclusion, but on the other hand\n\nevery aspect of the examinations had to be carried out thoroughly\n\nwithout lasting too long because of the associated stress. For these\n\nreasons, it had been decided to hold a series of brief examinations\n\nfollowing on one after another. Sunday had been chosen as the day for\n\nthe hearings so that K. would not be disturbed in his professional work.\n\nIt was assumed that he would be in agreement with this, but if he wished\n\nfor another date then, as far as possible, he would be accommodated.\n\nCross-examinations could even be held in the night, for instance, but K.\n\nwould probably not be fresh enough at that time. Anyway, as long as K.\n\nmade no objection, the hearing would be left on Sundays. It was a matter\n\nof course that he would have to appear without fail, there was probably\n\nno need to point this out to him. He would be given the number of the\n\nbuilding where he was to present himself, which was in a street in a\n\nsuburb well away from the city centre which K. had never been to before.\n\n\n\nOnce he had received this notice, K. hung up the receiver without giving\n\nan answer; he had decided immediately to go there that Sunday, it was\n\ncertainly necessary, proceedings had begun and he had to face up to it,\n\nand this first examination would probably also be the last. He was still\n\nstanding in thought by the telephone when he heard the voice of the\n\ndeputy director behind him--he wanted to use the telephone but K. stood\n\nin his way. \"Bad news?\" asked the deputy director casually, not in order\n\nto find anything out but just to get K. away from the device. \"No, no,\"\n\nsaid K., he stepped to one side but did not go away entirely. The deputy\n\ndirector picked up the receiver and, as he waited for his connection,\n\nturned away from it and said to K., \"One question, Mr. K.: Would you\n\nlike to give me the pleasure of joining me on my sailing boat on Sunday\n\nmorning? There's quite a few people coming, you're bound to know some\n\nof them. One of them is Hasterer, the state attorney. Would you like to\n\ncome along? Do come along!\" K. tried to pay attention to what the\n\ndeputy director was saying. It was of no small importance for him, as\n\nthis invitation from the deputy director, with whom he had never got on\n\nvery well, meant that he was trying to improve his relations with him.\n\nIt showed how important K. had become in the bank and how its second\n\nmost important official seemed to value his friendship, or at least his\n\nimpartiality. He was only speaking at the side of the telephone receiver\n\nwhile he waited for his connection, but in giving this invitation the\n\ndeputy director was humbling himself. But K. would have to humiliate him\n\na second time as a result, he said, \"Thank you very much, but I'm afraid\n\nI will have no time on Sunday, I have a previous obligation.\" \"Pity,\"\n\nsaid the deputy director, and turned to the telephone conversation that\n\nhad just been connected. It was not a short conversation, but K.\n\nremained standing confused by the instrument all the time it was going\n\non. It was only when the deputy director hung up that he was shocked\n\ninto awareness and said, in order to partially excuse his standing there\n\nfor no reason, \"I've just received a telephone call, there's somewhere I\n\nneed to go, but they forgot to tell me what time.\" \"Ask them then,\" said\n\nthe deputy director. \"It's not that important,\" said K., although in\n\nthat way his earlier excuse, already weak enough, was made even weaker.\n\nAs he went, the deputy director continued to speak about other things.\n\nK. forced himself to answer, but his thoughts were mainly about that\n\nSunday, how it would be best to get there for nine o'clock in the\n\nmorning as that was the time that courts always start work on weekdays.\n\n\n\nThe weather was dull on Sunday. K. was very tired, as he had stayed out\n\ndrinking until late in the night celebrating with some of the regulars,\n\nand he had almost overslept. He dressed hurriedly, without the time to\n\nthink and assemble the various plans he had worked out during the week.\n\nWith no breakfast, he rushed to the suburb he had been told about. Oddly\n\nenough, although he had little time to look around him, he came across\n\nthe three bank officials involved in his case, Rabensteiner, Kullich and\n\nKaminer. The first two were travelling in a tram that went across K.'s\n\nroute, but Kaminer sat on the terrace of a café and leant curiously\n\nover the wall as K. came over. All of them seemed to be looking at him,\n\nsurprised at seeing their superior running; it was a kind of pride that\n\nmade K. want to go on foot, this was his affair and the idea of any help\n\nfrom strangers, however slight, was repulsive to him, he also wanted to\n\navoid asking for anyone's help because that would initiate them into the\n\naffair even if only slightly. And after all, he had no wish at all to\n\nhumiliate himself before the committee by being too punctual. Anyway,\n\nnow he was running so that he would get there by nine o'clock if at all\n\npossible, even though he had no appointment for this time.\n\n\n\nHe had thought that he would recognise the building from a distance by\n\nsome kind of sign, without knowing exactly what the sign would look\n\nlike, or from some particular kind of activity outside the entrance. K.\n\nhad been told that the building was in Juliusstrasse, but when he stood\n\nat the street's entrance it consisted on each side of almost nothing but\n\nmonotonous, grey constructions, tall blocks of flats occupied by poor\n\npeople. Now, on a Sunday morning, most of the windows were occupied, men\n\nin their shirtsleeves leant out smoking, or carefully and gently held\n\nsmall children on the sills. Other windows were piled up with bedding,\n\nabove which the dishevelled head of a woman would briefly appear. People\n\ncalled out to each other across the street, one of the calls provoked a\n\nloud laugh about K. himself. It was a long street, and spaced evenly\n\nalong it were small shops below street level, selling various kinds of\n\nfoodstuffs, which you reached by going down a few steps. Women went in\n\nand out of them or stood chatting on the steps. A fruitmonger, taking\n\nhis goods up to the windows, was just as inattentive as K. and nearly\n\nknocked him down with his cart. Just then, a gramophone, which in better\n\nparts of town would have been seen as worn out, began to play some\n\nmurderous tune.\n\n\n\nK. went further into the street, slowly, as if he had plenty of time\n\nnow, or as if the examining magistrate were looking at him from one of\n\nthe windows and therefore knew that K. had found his way there. It was\n\nshortly after nine. The building was quite far down the street, it\n\ncovered so much area it was almost extraordinary, and the gateway in\n\nparticular was tall and long. It was clearly intended for delivery\n\nwagons belonging to the various warehouses all round the yard which were\n\nnow locked up and carried the names of companies some of which K. knew\n\nfrom his work at the bank. In contrast with his usual habits, he\n\nremained standing a while at the entrance to the yard taking in all\n\nthese external details. Near him, there was a bare-footed man sitting on\n\na crate and reading a newspaper. There were two lads swinging on a hand\n\ncart. In front of a pump stood a weak, young girl in a bedjacket who, as\n\nthe water flowed into her can, looked at K. There was a piece of rope\n\nstretched between two windows in a corner of the yard, with some washing\n\nhanging on it to dry. A man stood below it calling out instructions to\n\ndirect the work being done.\n\n\n\nK. went over to the stairway to get to the room where the hearing was to\n\ntake place, but then stood still again as besides these steps he could\n\nsee three other stairway entrances, and there also seemed to be a small\n\npassageway at the end of the yard leading into a second yard. It\n\nirritated him that he had not been given more precise directions to the\n\nroom, it meant they were either being especially neglectful with him or\n\nespecially indifferent, and he decided to make that clear to them very\n\nloudly and very unambiguously. In the end he decided to climb up the\n\nstairs, his thoughts playing on something that he remembered the\n\npoliceman, Willem, saying to him; that the court is attracted by the\n\nguilt, from which it followed that the courtroom must be on the stairway\n\nthat K. selected by chance.\n\n\n\nAs he went up he disturbed a large group of children playing on the\n\nstairs who looked at him as he stepped through their rows. \"Next time I\n\ncome here,\" he said to himself, \"I must either bring sweets with me to\n\nmake them like me or a stick to hit them with.\" Just before he reached\n\nthe first landing he even had to wait a little while until a ball had\n\nfinished its movement, two small lads with sly faces like grown-up\n\nscoundrels held him by his trouser-legs until it had; if he were to\n\nshake them off he would have to hurt them, and he was afraid of what\n\nnoise they would make by shouting.\n\n\n\nOn the first floor, his search began for real. He still felt unable to\n\nask for the investigating committee, and so he invented a joiner called\n\nLanz--that name occurred to him because the captain, Mrs. Grubach's\n\nnephew, was called Lanz--so that he could ask at every flat whether Lanz\n\nthe joiner lived there and thus obtain a chance to look into the rooms.\n\nIt turned out, though, that that was mostly possible without further\n\nado, as almost all the doors were left open and the children ran in and\n\nout. Most of them were small, one-windowed rooms where they also did the\n\ncooking. Many women held babies in one arm and worked at the stove with\n\nthe other. Half grown girls, who seemed to be dressed in just their\n\npinafores worked hardest running to and fro. In every room, the beds\n\nwere still in use by people who were ill, or still asleep, or people\n\nstretched out on them in their clothes. K. knocked at the flats where\n\nthe doors were closed and asked whether Lanz the joiner lived there. It\n\nwas usually a woman who opened the door, heard the enquiry and turned to\n\nsomebody in the room who would raise himself from the bed. \"The\n\ngentleman's asking if a joiner called Lanz, lives here.\" \"A joiner,\n\ncalled Lanz?\" he would ask from the bed.\" \"That's right,\" K. would say,\n\nalthough it was clear that the investigating committee was not to be\n\nfound there, and so his task was at an end. There were many who thought\n\nit must be very important for K. to find Lanz the joiner and thought\n\nlong about it, naming a joiner who was not called Lanz or giving a name\n\nthat had some vague similarity with Lanz, or they asked neighbours or\n\naccompanied K. to a door a long way away where they thought someone of\n\nthat sort might live in the back part of the building or where someone\n\nwould be who could advise K. better than they could themselves. K.\n\neventually had to give up asking if he did not want to be led all round\n\nfrom floor to floor in this way. He regretted his initial plan, which\n\nhad at first seemed so practical to him. As he reached the fifth floor,\n\nhe decided to give up the search, took his leave of a friendly, young\n\nworker who wanted to lead him on still further and went down the stairs.\n\nBut then the thought of how much time he was wasting made him cross, he\n\nwent back again and knocked at the first door on the fifth floor. The\n\nfirst thing he saw in the small room was a large clock on the wall which\n\nalready showed ten o'clock. \"Is there a joiner called Lanz who lives\n\nhere?\" he asked. \"Pardon?\" said a young woman with black, shining eyes\n\nwho was, at that moment, washing children's underclothes in a bucket.\n\nShe pointed her wet hand towards the open door of the adjoining room.\n\n\n\nK. thought he had stepped into a meeting. A medium sized, two windowed\n\nroom was filled with the most diverse crowd of people--nobody paid any\n\nattention to the person who had just entered. Close under its ceiling it\n\nwas surrounded by a gallery which was also fully occupied and where the\n\npeople could only stand bent down with their heads and their backs\n\ntouching the ceiling. K., who found the air too stuffy, stepped out\n\nagain and said to the young woman, who had probably misunderstood what\n\nhe had said, \"I asked for a joiner, someone by the name of Lanz.\" \"Yes,\"\n\nsaid the woman, \"please go on in.\" K. would probably not have followed\n\nher if the woman had not gone up to him, taken hold of the door handle\n\nand said, \"I'll have to close the door after you, no-one else will be\n\nallowed in.\" \"Very sensible,\" said K., \"but it's too full already.\" But\n\nthen he went back in anyway. He passed through between two men who were\n\ntalking beside the door--one of them held both hands far out in front of\n\nhimself making the movements of counting out money, the other looked him\n\nclosely in the eyes--and someone took him by the hand. It was a small,\n\nred-faced youth. \"Come in, come in,\" he said. K. let himself be led by\n\nhim, and it turned out that there was--surprisingly in a densely packed\n\ncrowd of people moving to and fro--a narrow passage which may have been\n\nthe division between two factions; this idea was reinforced by the fact\n\nthat in the first few rows to the left and the right of him there was\n\nhardly any face looking in his direction, he saw nothing but the backs\n\nof people directing their speech and their movements only towards\n\nmembers of their own side. Most of them were dressed in black, in old,\n\nlong, formal frock coats that hung down loosely around them. These\n\nclothes were the only thing that puzzled K., as he would otherwise have\n\ntaken the whole assembly for a local political meeting.\n\n\n\nAt the other end of the hall where K. had been led there was a little\n\ntable set at an angle on a very low podium which was as overcrowded as\n\neverywhere else, and behind the table, near the edge of the podium, sat\n\na small, fat, wheezing man who was talking with someone behind him. This\n\nsecond man was standing with his legs crossed and his elbows on the\n\nbackrest of the chair, provoking much laughter. From time to time he\n\nthrew his arm in the air as if doing a caricature of someone. The youth\n\nwho was leading K. had some difficulty in reporting to the man. He had\n\nalready tried twice to tell him something, standing on tiptoe, but\n\nwithout getting the man's attention as he sat there above him. It was\n\nonly when one of the people up on the podium drew his attention to the\n\nyouth that the man turned to him and leant down to hear what it was he\n\nquietly said. Then he pulled out his watch and quickly looked over at K.\n\n\"You should have been here one hour and five minutes ago,\" he said. K.\n\nwas going to give him a reply but had no time to do so, as hardly had\n\nthe man spoken than a general muttering arose all over the right hand\n\nside of the hall. \"You should have been here one hour and five minutes\n\nago,\" the man now repeated, raising his voice this time, and quickly\n\nlooked round the hall beneath him. The muttering also became immediately\n\nlouder and, as the man said nothing more, died away only gradually. Now\n\nthe hall was much quieter than when K. had entered. Only the people up\n\nin the gallery had not stopped passing remarks. As far as could be\n\ndistinguished, up in the half-darkness, dust and haze, they seemed to be\n\nless well dressed than those below. Many of them had brought pillows\n\nthat they had put between their heads and the ceiling so that they would\n\nnot hurt themselves pressed against it.\n\n\n\nK. had decided he would do more watching than talking, so he did not\n\ndefend himself for supposedly having come late, and simply said, \"Well\n\nmaybe I have arrived late, I'm here now.\" There followed loud applause,\n\nonce more from the right hand side of the hall. Easy people to get on\n\nyour side, thought K., and was bothered only by the quiet from the left\n\nhand side which was directly behind him and from which there was\n\napplause from only a few individuals. He wondered what he could say to\n\nget all of them to support him together or, if that were not possible,\n\nto at least get the support of the others for a while.\n\n\n\n\"Yes,\" said the man, \"but I'm now no longer under any obligation to hear\n\nyour case\"--there was once more a muttering, but this time it was\n\nmisleading as the man waved the people's objections aside with his hand\n\nand continued--\"I will, however, as an exception, continue with it\n\ntoday. But you should never arrive late like this again. And now, step\n\nforward!\" Someone jumped down from the podium so that there would be a\n\nplace free for K., and K. stepped up onto it. He stood pressed closely\n\nagainst the table, the press of the crowd behind him was so great that\n\nhe had to press back against it if he did not want to push the judge's\n\ndesk down off the podium and perhaps the judge along with it.\n\n\n\nThe judge, however, paid no attention to that but sat very comfortably\n\non his chair and, after saying a few words to close his discussion with\n\nthe man behind him, reached for a little note book, the only item on his\n\ndesk. It was like an old school exercise book and had become quite\n\nmisshapen from much thumbing. \"Now then,\" said the judge, thumbing\n\nthrough the book. He turned to K. with the tone of someone who knows his\n\nfacts and said, \"you are a house painter?\" \"No,\" said K., \"I am the\n\nchief clerk in a large bank.\" This reply was followed by laughter among\n\nthe right hand faction down in the hall, it was so hearty that K.\n\ncouldn't stop himself joining in with it. The people supported\n\nthemselves with their hands on their knees and shook as if suffering a\n\nserious attack of coughing. Even some of those in the gallery were\n\nlaughing. The judge had become quite cross but seemed to have no power\n\nover those below him in the hall, he tried to reduce what harm had been\n\ndone in the gallery and jumped up threatening them, his eyebrows, until\n\nthen hardly remarkable, pushed themselves up and became big, black and\n\nbushy over his eyes.\n\n\n\nThe left hand side of the hall was still quiet, though, the people stood\n\nthere in rows with their faces looking towards the podium listening to\n\nwhat was being said there, they observed the noise from the other side\n\nof the hall with the same quietness and even allowed some individuals\n\nfrom their own ranks, here and there, to go forward into the other\n\nfaction. The people in the left faction were not only fewer in number\n\nthan the right but probably were no more important than them, although\n\ntheir behaviour was calmer and that made it seem like they were. When K.\n\nnow began to speak he was convinced he was doing it in the same way as\n\nthem.\n\n\n\n\"Your question, My Lord, as to whether I am a house painter--in fact\n\neven more than that, you did not ask at all but merely imposed it on\n\nme--is symptomatic of the whole way these proceedings against me are\n\nbeing carried out. Perhaps you will object that there are no proceedings\n\nagainst me. You will be quite right, as there are proceedings only if I\n\nacknowledge that there are. But, for the moment, I do acknowledge it,\n\nout of pity for yourselves to a large extent. It's impossible not to\n\nobserve all this business without feeling pity. I don't say things are\n\nbeing done without due care but I would like to make it clear that it is\n\nI who make the acknowledgement.\"\n\n\n\nK. stopped speaking and looked down into the hall. He had spoken\n\nsharply, more sharply than he had intended, but he had been quite right.\n\nIt should have been rewarded with some applause here and there but\n\neverything was quiet, they were all clearly waiting for what would\n\nfollow, perhaps the quietness was laying the ground for an outbreak of\n\nactivity that would bring this whole affair to an end. It was somewhat\n\ndisturbing that just then the door at the end of the hall opened, the\n\nyoung washerwoman, who seemed to have finished her work, came in and,\n\ndespite all her caution, attracted the attention of some of the people\n\nthere. It was only the judge who gave K. any direct pleasure, as he\n\nseemed to have been immediately struck by K.'s words. Until then, he had\n\nlistened to him standing, as K.'s speech had taken him by surprise while\n\nhe was directing his attention to the gallery. Now, in the pause, he sat\n\ndown very slowly, as if he did not want anyone to notice. He took out\n\nthe notebook again, probably so that he could give the impression of\n\nbeing calmer.\n\n\n\n\"That won't help you, sir,\" continued K., \"even your little book will\n\nonly confirm what I say.\" K. was satisfied to hear nothing but his own\n\nquiet words in this room full of strangers, and he even dared casually\n\nto pick up the examining judge's notebook and, touching it only with the\n\ntips of his fingers as if it were something revolting, lifted it in the\n\nair, holding it just by one of the middle pages so that the others on\n\neach side of it, closely written, blotted and yellowing, flapped down.\n\n\"Those are the official notes of the examining judge,\" he said, and let\n\nthe notebook fall down onto the desk. \"You can read in your book as much\n\nas you like, sir, I really don't have anything in this charge book to be\n\nafraid of, even though I don't have access to it as I wouldn't want it\n\nin my hand, I can only touch it with two fingers.\" The judge grabbed the\n\nnotebook from where it had fallen on the desk--which could only have\n\nbeen a sign of his deep humiliation, or at least that is how it must\n\nhave been perceived--tried to tidy it up a little, and held it once more\n\nin front of himself in order to read from it.\n\n\n\nThe people in the front row looked up at him, showing such tension on\n\ntheir faces that he looked back down at them for some time. Every one of\n\nthem was an old man, some of them with white beards. Could they perhaps\n\nbe the crucial group who could turn the whole assembly one way or the\n\nother. They had sunk into a state of motionlessness while K. gave his\n\noration, and it had not been possible to raise them from this passivity\n\neven when the judge was being humiliated. \"What has happened to me,\"\n\ncontinued K., with less of the vigour he had had earlier, he continually\n\nscanned the faces in the first row, and this gave his address a somewhat\n\nnervous and distracted character, \"what has happened to me is not just\n\nan isolated case. If it were it would not be of much importance as it's\n\nnot of much importance to me, but it is a symptom of proceedings which\n\nare carried out against many. It's on behalf of them that I stand here\n\nnow, not for myself alone.\"\n\n\n\nWithout having intended it, he had raised his voice. Somewhere in the\n\nhall, someone raised his hands and applauded him shouting, \"Bravo! Why\n\nnot then? Bravo! Again I say, Bravo!\" Some of the men in the first row\n\ngroped around in their beards, none of them looked round to see who was\n\nshouting. Not even K. thought him of any importance but it did raise his\n\nspirits; he no longer thought it at all necessary that all of those in\n\nthe hall should applaud him, it was enough if the majority of them began\n\nto think about the matter and if only one of them, now and then, was\n\npersuaded.\n\n\n\n\"I'm not trying to be a successful orator,\" said K. after this thought,\n\n\"that's probably more than I'm capable of anyway. I'm sure the examining\n\njudge can speak far better than I can, it is part of his job after all.\n\nAll that I want is a public discussion of a public wrong. Listen: ten\n\ndays ago I was placed under arrest, the arrest itself is something I\n\nlaugh about but that's beside the point. They came for me in the morning\n\nwhen I was still in bed. Maybe the order had been given to arrest some\n\nhouse painter--that seems possible after what the judge has\n\nsaid--someone who is as innocent as I am, but it was me they chose.\n\nThere were two police thugs occupying the next room. They could not have\n\ntaken better precautions if I had been a dangerous robber. And these\n\npolicemen were unprincipled riff-raff, they talked at me till I was sick\n\nof it, they wanted bribes, they wanted to trick me into giving them my\n\nclothes, they wanted money, supposedly so that they could bring me my\n\nbreakfast after they had blatantly eaten my own breakfast in front of my\n\neyes. And even that was not enough. I was led in front of the supervisor\n\nin another room. This was the room of a lady who I have a lot of respect\n\nfor, and I was forced to look on while the supervisor and the policemen\n\nmade quite a mess of this room because of me, although not through any\n\nfault of mine. It was not easy to stay calm, but I managed to do so and\n\nwas completely calm when I asked the supervisor why it was that I was\n\nunder arrest. If he were here he would have to confirm what I say. I can\n\nsee him now, sitting on the chair belonging to that lady I mentioned--a\n\npicture of dull-witted arrogance. What do you think he answered? What\n\nhe told me, gentlemen, was basically nothing at all; perhaps he really\n\ndid know nothing, he had placed me under arrest and was satisfied. In\n\nfact he had done more than that and brought three junior employees from\n\nthe bank where I work into the lady's room; they had made themselves\n\nbusy interfering with some photographs that belonged to the lady and\n\ncausing a mess. There was, of course, another reason for bringing these\n\nemployees; they, just like my landlady and her maid, were expected to\n\nspread the news of my arrest and damage my public reputation and in\n\nparticular to remove me from my position at the bank. Well they didn't\n\nsucceed in any of that, not in the slightest, even my landlady, who is\n\nquite a simple person--and I will give you here her name in full\n\nrespect, her name is Mrs. Grubach--even Mrs. Grubach was understanding\n\nenough to see that an arrest like this has no more significance than an\n\nattack carried out on the street by some youths who are not kept under\n\nproper control. I repeat, this whole affair has caused me nothing but\n\nunpleasantness and temporary irritation, but could it not also have had\n\nsome far worse consequences?\"\n\n\n\nK. broke off here and looked at the judge, who said nothing. As he did\n\nso he thought he saw the judge use a movement of his eyes to give a sign\n\nto someone in the crowd. K. smiled and said, \"And now the judge, right\n\nnext to me, is giving a secret sign to someone among you. There seems to\n\nbe someone among you who is taking directions from above. I don't know\n\nwhether the sign is meant to produce booing or applause, but I'll resist\n\ntrying to guess what its meaning is too soon. It really doesn't matter\n\nto me, and I give his lordship the judge my full and public permission\n\nto stop giving secret signs to his paid subordinate down there and give\n\nhis orders in words instead; let him just say 'Boo now!,' and then the\n\nnext time 'Clap now!'\"\n\n\n\nWhether it was embarrassment or impatience, the judge rocked backwards\n\nand forwards on his seat. The man behind him, whom he had been talking\n\nwith earlier, leant forward again, either to give him a few general\n\nwords of encouragement or some specific piece of advice. Below them in\n\nthe hall the people talked to each other quietly but animatedly. The two\n\nfactions had earlier seemed to hold views strongly opposed to each other\n\nbut now they began to intermingle, a few individuals pointed up at K.,\n\nothers pointed at the judge. The air in the room was fuggy and extremely\n\noppressive, those who were standing furthest away could hardly even be\n\nseen through it. It must have been especially troublesome for those\n\nvisitors who were in the gallery, as they were forced to quietly ask\n\nthe participants in the assembly what exactly was happening, albeit\n\nwith timid glances at the judge. The replies they received were just as\n\nquiet, and given behind the protection of a raised hand.\n\n\n\n\"I have nearly finished what I have to say,\" said K., and as there was\n\nno bell available he struck the desk with his fist in a way that\n\nstartled the judge and his advisor and made them look up from each\n\nother. \"None of this concerns me, and I am therefore able to make a calm\n\nassessment of it, and, assuming that this so-called court is of any real\n\nimportance, it will be very much to your advantage to listen to what I\n\nhave to say. If you want to discuss what I say, please don't bother to\n\nwrite it down until later on, I don't have any time to waste and I'll\n\nsoon be leaving.\"\n\n\n\nThere was immediate silence, which showed how well K. was in control of\n\nthe crowd. There were no shouts among them as there had been at the\n\nstart, no-one even applauded, but if they weren't already persuaded they\n\nseemed very close to it.\n\n\n\nK. was pleased at the tension among all the people there as they\n\nlistened to him, a rustling rose from the silence which was more\n\ninvigorating than the most ecstatic applause could have been. \"There is\n\nno doubt,\" he said quietly, \"that there is some enormous organisation\n\ndetermining what is said by this court. In my case this includes my\n\narrest and the examination taking place here today, an organisation that\n\nemploys policemen who can be bribed, oafish supervisors and judges of\n\nwhom nothing better can be said than that they are not as arrogant as\n\nsome others. This organisation even maintains a high-level judiciary\n\nalong with its train of countless servants, scribes, policemen and all\n\nthe other assistance that it needs, perhaps even executioners and\n\ntorturers--I'm not afraid of using those words. And what, gentlemen, is\n\nthe purpose of this enormous organisation. Its purpose is to arrest\n\ninnocent people and wage pointless prosecutions against them which, as\n\nin my case, lead to no result. How are we to avoid those in office\n\nbecoming deeply corrupt when everything is devoid of meaning? That is\n\nimpossible, not even the highest judge would be able to achieve that for\n\nhimself. That is why policemen try to steal the clothes off the back of\n\nthose they arrest, that is why supervisors break into the homes of\n\npeople they do not know, that is why innocent people are humiliated in\n\nfront of crowds rather than being given a proper trial. The policemen\n\nonly talked about the warehouses where they put the property of those\n\nthey arrest, I would like to see these warehouses where the hard won\n\npossessions of people under arrest is left to decay, if, that is, it's\n\nnot stolen by the thieving hands of the warehouse workers.\"\n\n\n\nK. was interrupted by a screeching from the far end of the hall, he\n\nshaded his eyes to see that far, as the dull light of day made the smoke\n\nwhitish and hard to see through. It was the washerwoman whom K. had\n\nrecognised as a likely source of disturbance as soon as she had entered.\n\nIt was hard to see now whether it was her fault or not. K. could only\n\nsee that a man had pulled her into a corner by the door and was pressing\n\nhimself against her. But it was not her who was screaming, but the man,\n\nhe had opened his mouth wide and looked up at the ceiling. A small\n\ncircle had formed around the two of them, the visitors near him in the\n\ngallery seemed delighted that the serious tone K. had introduced into\n\nthe gathering had been disturbed in this way. K.'s first thought was to\n\nrun over there, and he also thought that everyone would want to bring\n\nthings back into order there or at least to make the pair leave the\n\nroom, but the first row of people in front of him stayed were they were,\n\nno-one moved and no-one let K. through. On the contrary, they stood in\n\nhis way, old men held out their arms in front of him and a hand from\n\nsomewhere--he did not have the time to turn round--took hold of his\n\ncollar. K., by this time, had forgotten about the pair, it seemed to him\n\nthat his freedom was being limited as if his arrest was being taken\n\nseriously, and, without any thought for what he was doing, he jumped\n\ndown from the podium. Now he stood face to face with the crowd. Had he\n\njudged the people properly? Had he put too much faith in the effect of\n\nhis speech? Had they been putting up a pretence all the time he had\n\nbeen speaking, and now that he came to the end and to what must follow,\n\nwere they tired of pretending? What faces they were, all around him!\n\nDark, little eyes flickered here and there, cheeks drooped down like on\n\ndrunken men, their long beards were thin and stiff, if they took hold of\n\nthem it was more like they were making their hands into claws, not as if\n\nthey were taking hold of their own beards. But underneath those\n\nbeards--and this was the real discovery made by K.--there were badges of\n\nvarious sizes and colours shining on the collars of their coats. As far\n\nas he could see, every one of them was wearing one of these badges. All\n\nof them belonged to the same group, even though they seemed to be\n\ndivided to the right and the left of him, and when he suddenly turned\n\nround he saw the same badge on the collar of the examining judge who\n\ncalmly looked down at him with his hands in his lap. \"So,\" called out\n\nK., throwing his arms in the air as if this sudden realisation needed\n\nmore room, \"all of you are working for this organisation, I see now that\n\nyou are all the very bunch of cheats and liars I've just been speaking\n\nabout, you've all pressed yourselves in here in order to listen in and\n\nsnoop on me, you gave the impression of having formed into factions, one\n\nof you even applauded me to test me out, and you wanted to learn how to\n\ntrap an innocent man! Well, I hope you haven't come here for nothing, I\n\nhope you've either had some fun from someone who expected you to defend\n\nhis innocence or else--let go of me or I'll hit you,\" shouted K. to a\n\nquivery old man who had pressed himself especially close to him--\"or\n\nelse that you've actually learned something. And so I wish you good luck\n\nin your trade.\" He briskly took his hat from where it lay on the edge of\n\nthe table and, surrounded by a silence caused perhaps by the\n\ncompleteness of their surprise, pushed his way to the exit. However, the\n\nexamining judge seems to have moved even more quickly than K., as he was\n\nwaiting for him at the doorway. \"One moment,\" he said. K. stood where he\n\nwas, but looked at the door with his hand already on its handle rather\n\nthan at the judge. \"I merely wanted to draw your attention,\" said the\n\njudge, \"to something you seem not yet to be aware of: today, you have\n\nrobbed yourself of the advantages that a hearing of this sort always\n\ngives to someone who is under arrest.\" K. laughed towards the door. \"You\n\nbunch of louts,\" he called, \"you can keep all your hearings as a present\n\nfrom me,\" then opened the door and hurried down the steps. Behind him,\n\nthe noise of the assembly rose as it became lively once more and\n\nprobably began to discuss these events as if making a scientific study\n\nof them.",
    "word_count": 6409
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 5,
    "title": "Chapter Five",
    "content": "Three",
    "word_count": 1
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 6,
    "title": "Chapter Six",
    "content": "In the empty Courtroom--The Student--The Offices\n\n\n\n\n\nEvery day over the following week, K. expected another summons to\n\narrive, he could not believe that his rejection of any more hearings had\n\nbeen taken literally, and when the expected summons really had not come\n\nby Saturday evening he took it to mean that he was expected, without\n\nbeing told, to appear at the same place at the same time. So on Sunday,\n\nhe set out once more in the same direction, going without hesitation up\n\nthe steps and through the corridors; some of the people remembered him\n\nand greeted him from their doorways, but he no longer needed to ask\n\nanyone the way and soon arrived at the right door. It was opened as soon\n\nas he knocked and, paying no attention to the woman he had seen last\n\ntime who was standing at the doorway, he was about to go straight into\n\nthe adjoining room when she said to him \"There's no session today.\"\n\n\"What do you mean; no session?\" he asked, unable to believe it. But the\n\nwoman persuaded him by opening the door to the next room. It was indeed\n\nempty, and looked even more dismal empty than it had the previous\n\nSunday. On the podium stood the table exactly as it had been before with\n\na few books laying on it. \"Can I have a look at those books?\" asked K.,\n\nnot because he was especially curious but so that he would not have come\n\nfor nothing. \"No,\" said the woman as she re-closed the door, \"that's not\n\nallowed. Those books belong to the examining judge.\" \"I see,\" said K.,\n\nand nodded, \"those books must be law books, and that's how this court\n\ndoes things, not only to try people who are innocent but even to try\n\nthem without letting them know what's going on.\" \"I expect you're\n\nright,\" said the woman, who had not understood exactly what he meant.\n\n\"I'd better go away again, then,\" said K. \"Should I give a message to\n\nthe examining judge?\" asked the woman. \"Do you know him, then?\" asked K.\n\n\"Of course I know him,\" said the woman, \"my husband is the court usher.\"\n\nIt was only now that K. noticed that the room, which before had held\n\nnothing but a wash-tub, had been fitted out as a living room. The woman\n\nsaw how surprised he was and said, \"Yes, we're allowed to live here as\n\nwe like, only we have to clear the room out when the court's in session.\n\nThere's lots of disadvantages to my husband's job.\" \"It's not so much\n\nthe room that surprises me,\" said K., looking at her crossly, \"it's your\n\nbeing married that shocks me.\" \"Are you thinking about what happened\n\nlast time the court was in session, when I disturbed what you were\n\nsaying?\" asked the woman. \"Of course,\" said K., \"it's in the past now\n\nand I've nearly forgotten about it, but at the time it made me furious.\n\nAnd now you tell me yourself that you are a married woman.\" \"It wasn't\n\nany disadvantage for you to have your speech interrupted. The way they\n\ntalked about you after you'd gone was really bad.\" \"That could well be,\"\n\nsaid K., turning away, \"but it does not excuse you.\" \"There's no-one I\n\nknow who'd hold it against me,\" said the woman. \"Him, who put his arms\n\naround me, he's been chasing after me for a long time. I might not be\n\nvery attractive for most people, but I am for him. I've got no\n\nprotection from him, even my husband has had to get used to it; if he\n\nwants to keep his job he's got to put up with it as that man's a student\n\nand he'll almost certainly be very powerful later on. He's always after\n\nme, he'd only just left when you arrived.\" \"That fits in with everything\n\nelse,\" said K., \"I'm not surprised.\" \"Do you want to make things a bit\n\nbetter here?\" the woman asked slowly, watching him as if she were saying\n\nsomething that could be as dangerous for K. as for herself. \"That's what\n\nI thought when I heard you speak, I really liked what you said. Mind\n\nyou, I only heard part of it, I missed the beginning of it and at the\n\nend I was lying on the floor with the student--it's so horrible here,\"\n\nshe said after a pause, and took hold of K.'s hand. \"Do you believe you\n\nreally will be able to make things better?\" K. smiled and twisted his\n\nhand round a little in her soft hands. \"It's really not my job to make\n\nthings better here, as you put it,\" he said, \"and if you said that to\n\nthe examining judge he would laugh at you or punish you for it. I really\n\nwould not have become involved in this matter if I could have helped it,\n\nand I would have lost no sleep worrying about how this court needs to be\n\nmade better. But because I'm told that I have been arrested--and I am\n\nunder arrest--it forces me to take some action, and to do so for my own\n\nsake. However, if I can be of some service to you in the process I will,\n\nof course, be glad to do so. And I will be glad to do so not only for\n\nthe sake of charity but also because you can be of some help to me.\"\n\n\"How could I help you, then?\" said the woman. \"You could, for example,\n\nshow me the books on the table there.\" \"Yes, certainly,\" the woman\n\ncried, and pulled K. along behind her as she rushed to them. The books\n\nwere old and well worn, the cover of one of them had nearly broken\n\nthrough in its middle, and it was held together with a few threads.\n\n\"Everything is so dirty here,\" said K., shaking his head, and before he\n\ncould pick the books up the woman wiped some of the dust off with her\n\napron. K. took hold of the book that lay on top and threw it open, an\n\nindecent picture appeared. A man and a woman sat naked on a sofa, the\n\nbase intent of whoever drew it was easy to see but he had been so\n\ngrossly lacking in skill that all that anyone could really make out were\n\nthe man and the woman who dominated the picture with their bodies,\n\nsitting in overly upright postures that created a false perspective and\n\nmade it difficult for them to approach each other. K. didn't thumb\n\nthrough that book any more, but just threw open the next one at its\n\ntitle page, it was a novel with the title, What Grete Suffered from her\n\nHusband, Hans. \"So this is the sort of law book they study here,\" said\n\nK., \"this is the sort of person sitting in judgement over me.\" \"I can\n\nhelp you,\" said the woman, \"would you like me to?\" \"Could you really do\n\nthat without placing yourself in danger? You did say earlier on that\n\nyour husband is wholly dependent on his superiors.\" \"I still want to\n\nhelp you,\" said the woman, \"come over here, we've got to talk about it.\n\nDon't say any more about what danger I'm in, I only fear danger where I\n\nwant to fear it. Come over here.\" She pointed to the podium and invited\n\nhim to sit down on the step with her. \"You've got lovely dark eyes,\" she\n\nsaid after they had sat down, looking up into K.'s face, \"people say\n\nI've got nice eyes too, but yours are much nicer. It was the first thing\n\nI noticed when you first came here. That's even why I came in here, into\n\nthe assembly room, afterwards, I'd never normally do that, I'm not\n\nreally even allowed to.\" So that's what all this is about, thought K.,\n\nshe's offering herself to me, she's as degenerate as everything else\n\naround here, she's had enough of the court officials, which is\n\nunderstandable I suppose, and so she approaches any stranger and makes\n\ncompliments about his eyes. With that, K. stood up in silence as if he\n\nhad spoken his thoughts out loud and thus explained his action to the\n\nwoman. \"I don't think you can be of any assistance to me,\" he said, \"to\n\nbe of any real assistance you would need to be in contact with high\n\nofficials. But I'm sure you only know the lower employees, and there are\n\ncrowds of them milling about here. I'm sure you're very familiar with\n\nthem and could achieve a great deal through them, I've no doubt of that,\n\nbut the most that could be done through them would have no bearing at\n\nall on the final outcome of the trial. You, on the other hand, would\n\nlose some of your friends as a result, and I have no wish of that. Carry\n\non with these people in the same way as you have been, as it does seem\n\nto me to be something you cannot do without. I have no regrets in saying\n\nthis as, in return for your compliment to me, I also find you rather\n\nattractive, especially when you look at me as sadly as you are now,\n\nalthough you really have no reason to do so. You belong to the people I\n\nhave to combat, and you're very comfortable among them, you're even in\n\nlove with the student, or if you don't love him you do at least prefer\n\nhim to your husband. It's easy to see that from what you've been\n\nsaying.\" \"No!\" she shouted, remained sitting where she was and grasped\n\nK.'s hand, which he failed to pull away fast enough. \"You can't go away\n\nnow, you can't go away when you've misjudged me like that! Are you\n\nreally capable of going away now? Am I really so worthless that you\n\nwon't even do me the favour of staying a little bit longer?\" \"You\n\nmisunderstand me,\" said K., sitting back down, \"if it's really important\n\nto you for me to stay here then I'll be glad to do so, I have plenty of\n\ntime, I came here thinking there would be a trial taking place. All I\n\nmeant with what I said just now was to ask you not to do anything on my\n\nbehalf in the proceedings against me. But even that is nothing for you\n\nto worry about when you consider that there's nothing hanging on the\n\noutcome of this trial, and that, whatever the verdict, I will just laugh\n\nat it. And that's even presupposing it ever even reaches any conclusion,\n\nwhich I very much doubt. I think it's much more likely that the court\n\nofficials will be too lazy, too forgetful, or even too fearful ever to\n\ncontinue with these proceedings and that they will soon be abandoned if\n\nthey haven't been abandoned already. It's even possible that they will\n\npretend to be carrying on with the trial in the hope of receiving a\n\nlarge bribe, although I can tell you now that that will be quite in vain\n\nas I pay bribes to no-one. Perhaps one favour you could do me would be\n\nto tell the examining judge, or anyone else who likes to spread\n\nimportant news, that I will never be induced to pay any sort of bribe\n\nthrough any stratagem of theirs--and I'm sure they have many stratagems\n\nat their disposal. There is no prospect of that, you can tell them that\n\nquite openly. And what's more, I expect they have already noticed\n\nthemselves, or even if they haven't, this affair is really not so\n\nimportant to me as they think. Those gentlemen would only save some work\n\nfor themselves, or at least some unpleasantness for me, which, however,\n\nI am glad to endure if I know that each piece of unpleasantness for me\n\nis a blow against them. And I will make quite sure it is a blow against\n\nthem. Do you actually know the judge?\" \"Course I do,\" said the woman,\n\n\"he was the first one I thought of when I offered to help you. I didn't\n\nknow he's only a minor official, but if you say so it must be true. Mind\n\nyou, I still think the report he gives to his superiors must have some\n\ninfluence. And he writes so many reports. You say these officials are\n\nlazy, but they're certainly not all lazy, especially this examining\n\njudge, he writes ever such a lot. Last Sunday, for instance, that\n\nsession went on till the evening. Everyone had gone, but the examining\n\njudge, he stayed in the hall, I had to bring him a lamp in, all I had\n\nwas a little kitchen lamp but he was very satisfied with it and started\n\nto write straight away. Meantime my husband arrived, he always has the\n\nday off on Sundays, we got the furniture back in and got our room sorted\n\nout and then a few of the neighbours came, we sat and talked for a bit\n\nby a candle, in short, we forgot all about the examining judge and went\n\nto bed. All of a sudden in the night, it must have been quite late in\n\nthe night, I wakes up, next to the bed, there's the examining judge\n\nshading the lamp with his hand so that there's no light from it falls on\n\nmy husband, he didn't need to be as careful as that, the way my husband\n\nsleeps the light wouldn't have woken him up anyway. I was quite shocked\n\nand nearly screamed, but the judge was very friendly, warned me I should\n\nbe careful, he whispered to me he's been writing all this time, and now\n\nhe's brought me the lamp back, and he'll never forget how I looked when\n\nhe found me there asleep. What I mean, with all this, I just wanted to\n\ntell you how the examining judge really does write lots of reports,\n\nespecially about you as questioning you was definitely one of the main\n\nthings on the agenda that Sunday. If he writes reports as long as that\n\nthey must be of some importance. And besides all that, you can see from\n\nwhat happened that the examining judge is after me, and it's right now,\n\nwhen he's first begun to notice me, that I can have a lot of influence\n\non him. And I've got other proof I mean a lot to him, too. Yesterday, he\n\nsent that student to me, the one he really trusts and who he works with,\n\nhe sent him with a present for me, silk stockings. He said it was\n\nbecause I clear up in the courtroom but that's only a pretence, that\n\njob's no more than what I'm supposed to do, it's what my husband gets\n\npaid for. Nice stockings, they are, look,\"--she stretched out her leg,\n\ndrew her skirt up to her knee and looked, herself, at the\n\nstocking--\"they are nice stockings, but they're too good for me,\n\nreally.\"\n\n\n\nShe suddenly interrupted herself and lay her hand on K.'s as if she\n\nwanted to calm him down, and whispered, \"Be quiet, Berthold is watching\n\nus.\" K. slowly looked up. In the doorway to the courtroom stood a young\n\nman, he was short, his legs were not quite straight, and he continually\n\nmoved his finger round in a short, thin, red beard with which he hoped\n\nto make himself look dignified. K. looked at him with some curiosity, he\n\nwas the first student he had ever met of the unfamiliar discipline of\n\njurisprudence, face to face at least, a man who would even most likely\n\nattain high office one day. The student, in contrast, seemed to take no\n\nnotice of K. at all, he merely withdrew his finger from his beard long\n\nenough to beckon to the woman and went over to the window, the woman\n\nleant over to K. and whispered, \"Don't be cross with me, please don't,\n\nand please don't think ill of me either, I've got to go to him now, to\n\nthis horrible man, just look at his bent legs. But I'll come straight\n\nback and then I'll go with you if you'll take me, I'll go wherever you\n\nwant, you can do whatever you like with me, I'll be happy if I can be\n\naway from here for as long as possible, it'd be best if I could get away\n\nfrom here for good.\" She stroked K.'s hand once more, jumped up and ran\n\nover to the window. Before he realised it, K. grasped for her hand but\n\nfailed to catch it. He really was attracted to the woman, and even after\n\nthinking hard about it could find no good reason why he should not give\n\nin to her allure. It briefly crossed his mind that the woman meant to\n\nentrap him on behalf of the court, but that was an objection he had no\n\ndifficulty in fending off. In what way could she entrap him? Was he not\n\nstill free, so free that he could crush the entire court whenever he\n\nwanted, at least where it concerned him? Could he not have that much\n\nconfidence in himself? And her offer of help sounded sincere, and maybe\n\nit wasn't quite worthless. And maybe there was no better revenge against\n\nthe examining judge and his cronies than to take this woman from him and\n\nhave her for himself. Maybe then, after much hard work writing dishonest\n\nreports about K., the judge would go to the woman's bed late one night\n\nand find it empty. And it would be empty because she belonged to K.,\n\nbecause this woman at the window, this lush, supple, warm body in its\n\nsombre clothes of rough, heavy material belonged to him, totally to him\n\nand to him alone. Once he had settled his thoughts towards the woman in\n\nthis way, he began to find the quiet conversation at the window was\n\ntaking too long, he rapped on the podium with his knuckles, and then\n\neven with his fist. The student briefly looked away from the woman to\n\nglance at K. over his shoulder but did allow himself to be disturbed, in\n\nfact he even pressed himself close to the woman and put his arms around\n\nher. She dropped her head down low as if listening to him carefully, as\n\nshe did so he kissed her right on the neck, hardly even interrupting\n\nwhat he was saying. K. saw this as confirmation of the tyranny the\n\nstudent held over the woman and which she had already complained about,\n\nhe stood up and walked up and down the room. Glancing sideways at the\n\nstudent, he wondered what would be the quickest possible way to get rid\n\nof him, and so it was not unwelcome to him when the student, clearly\n\ndisturbed by K.'s to-ing and fro-ing which K. had now developed into a\n\nstamping up and down, said to him, \"You don't have to stay here, you\n\nknow, if you're getting impatient. You could have gone earlier, no-one\n\nwould have missed you. In fact you should have gone, you should have\n\nleft as quickly as possible as soon as I got here.\" This comment could\n\nhave caused all possible rage to break out between them, but K. also\n\nbore in mind that this was a prospective court official speaking to a\n\ndisfavoured defendant, and he might well have been taking pride in\n\nspeaking in this way. K. remained standing quite close to him and said\n\nwith a smile, \"You're quite right, I am impatient, but the easiest way\n\nto settle this impatience would be if you left us. On the other hand,\n\nif you've come here to study--you are a student, I hear--I'll be quite\n\nhappy to leave the room to you and go away with the woman. I'm sure\n\nyou'll still have a lot of study to do before you're made into a judge.\n\nIt's true that I'm still not all that familiar with your branch of\n\njurisprudence but I take it it involves a lot more than speaking\n\nroughly--and I see you have no shame in doing that extremely well.\" \"He\n\nshouldn't have been allowed to move about so freely,\" said the student,\n\nas if he wanted to give the woman an explanation for K.'s insults, \"that\n\nwas a mistake. I've told the examining judge so. He should at least have\n\nbeen detained in his room between hearings. Sometimes it's impossible to\n\nunderstand what the judge thinks he's doing.\" \"You're wasting your\n\nbreath,\" said K., then he reached his hand out towards the woman and\n\nsaid, \"come with me.\" \"So that's it,\" said the student, \"oh no, you're\n\nnot going to get her,\" and with a strength you would not have expected\n\nfrom him, he glanced tenderly at her, lifted her up on one arm and, his\n\nback bent under the weight, ran with her to the door. In this way he\n\nshowed, unmistakably, that he was to some extent afraid of K., but he\n\nnonetheless dared to provoke him still further by stroking and squeezing\n\nthe woman's arm with his free hand. K. ran the few steps up to him, but\n\nwhen he had reached him and was about to take hold of him and, if\n\nnecessary, throttle him, the woman said, \"It's no good, it's the\n\nexamining judge who's sent for me, I daren't go with you, this little\n\nbastard ...\" and here she ran her hand over the student's face, \"this\n\nlittle bastard won't let me.\" \"And you don't want to be set free!\"\n\nshouted K., laying his hand on the student's shoulder, who then snapped\n\nat it with his teeth. \"No!\" shouted the woman, pushing K. away with both\n\nhands, \"no, no don't do that, what d'you think you're doing? That'd be\n\nthe end of me. Let go of him, please just let go of him. He's only\n\ncarrying out the judge's orders, he's carrying me to him.\" \"Let him take\n\nyou then, and I want to see nothing more of you,\" said K., enraged by\n\nhis disappointment and giving the student a thump in the back so that he\n\nbriefly stumbled and then, glad that he had not fallen, immediately\n\njumped up all the higher with his burden. K. followed them slowly. He\n\nrealised that this was the first unambiguous setback he had suffered\n\nfrom these people. It was of course nothing to worry about, he accepted\n\nthe setback only because he was looking for a fight. If he stayed at\n\nhome and carried on with his normal life he would be a thousand times\n\nsuperior to these people and could get any of them out of his way just\n\nwith a kick. And he imagined the most laughable scene possible as an\n\nexample of this, if this contemptible student, this inflated child, this\n\nknock-kneed redbeard, if he were kneeling at Elsa's bed wringing his\n\nhands and begging for forgiveness. K. so enjoyed imagining this scene\n\nthat he decided to take the student along to Elsa with him if ever he\n\nshould get the opportunity.\n\n\n\nK. was curious to see where the woman would be taken and he hurried over\n\nto the door, the student was not likely to carry her through the streets\n\non his arm. It turned out that the journey was far shorter. Directly\n\nopposite the flat there was a narrow flight of wooden steps which\n\nprobably led up to the attic, they turned as they went so that it was\n\nnot possible to see where they ended. The student carried the woman up\n\nthese steps, and after the exertions of running with her he was soon\n\ngroaning and moving very slowly. The woman waved down at K. and by\n\nraising and lowering her shoulders she tried to show that she was an\n\ninnocent party in this abduction, although the gesture did not show a\n\nlot of regret. K. watched her without expression like a stranger, he\n\nwanted to show neither that he was disappointed nor that he would easily\n\nget over his disappointment.\n\n\n\nThe two of them had disappeared, but K. remained standing in the\n\ndoorway. He had to accept that the woman had not only cheated him but\n\nthat she had also lied to him when she said she was being taken to the\n\nexamining judge. The examining judge certainly wouldn't be sitting and\n\nwaiting in the attic. The wooden stairs would explain nothing to him\n\nhowever long he stared at them. Then K. noticed a small piece of paper\n\nnext to them, went across to it and read, in a childish and unpractised\n\nhand, \"Entrance to the Court Offices\". Were the court offices here, in\n\nthe attic of this tenement, then? If that was how they were\n\naccommodated it did not attract much respect, and it was some comfort\n\nfor the accused to realise how little money this court had at its\n\ndisposal if it had to locate its offices in a place where the tenants of\n\nthe building, who were themselves among the poorest of people, would\n\nthrow their unneeded junk. On the other hand, it was possible that the\n\nofficials had enough money but that they squandered it on themselves\n\nrather than use it for the court's purposes. Going by K.'s experience of\n\nthem so far, that even seemed probable, except that if the court were\n\nallowed to decay in that way it would not just humiliate the accused but\n\nalso give him more encouragement than if the court were simply in a\n\nstate of poverty. K. also now understood that the court was ashamed to\n\nsummon those it accused to the attic of this building for the initial\n\nhearing, and why it preferred to impose upon them in their own homes.\n\nWhat a position it was that K. found himself in, compared with the judge\n\nsitting up in the attic! K., at the bank, had a big office with an\n\nante-room, and had an enormous window through which he could look down\n\nat the activity in the square. It was true, though, that he had no\n\nsecondary income from bribes and fraud, and he couldn't tell a servant\n\nto bring him a woman up to the office on his arm. K., however, was quite\n\nwilling to do without such things, in this life at least. K. was still\n\nlooking at the notice when a man came up the stairs, looked through the\n\nopen door into the living room where it was also possible to see the\n\ncourtroom, and finally asked K. whether he had just seen a woman there.\n\n\"You're the court usher, aren't you?\" asked K. \"That's right,\" said the\n\nman, \"oh, yes, you're defendant K., I recognise you now as well. Nice to\n\nsee you here.\" And he offered K. his hand, which was far from what K.\n\nhad expected. And when K. said nothing, he added, \"There's no court\n\nsession planned for today, though.\" \"I know that,\" said K. as he looked\n\nat the usher's civilian coat which, beside its ordinary buttons,\n\ndisplayed two gilded ones as the only sign of his office and seemed to\n\nhave been taken from an old army officer's coat. \"I was speaking with\n\nyour wife a little while ago. She is no longer here. The student has\n\ncarried her off to the examining judge.\" \"Listen to this,\" said the\n\nusher, \"they're always carrying her away from me. It's Sunday today, and\n\nit's not part of my job to do any work today, but they send me off with\n\nsome message which isn't even necessary just to get me away from here.\n\nWhat they do is they send me off not too far away so that I can still\n\nhope to get back on time if I really hurry. So off I go running as fast\n\nas I can, shout the message through the crack in the door of the office\n\nI've been sent to, so out of breath they'll hardly be able to understand\n\nit, run back here again, but the student's been even faster than I\n\nhave--well he's got less far to go, he's only got to run down the steps.\n\nIf I wasn't so dependent on them I'd have squashed the student against\n\nthe wall here a long time ago. Right here, next to the sign. I'm always\n\ndreaming of doing that. Just here, just above the floor, that's where\n\nhe's crushed onto the wall, his arms stretched out, his fingers spread\n\napart, his crooked legs twisted round into a circle and blood squirted\n\nout all around him. It's only ever been a dream so far, though.\" \"Is\n\nthere nothing else you do?\" asked K. with a smile. \"Nothing that I know\n\nof,\" said the usher. \"And it's going to get even worse now, up till now\n\nhe's only been carrying her off for himself, now he's started carrying\n\nher off for the judge and all, just like I'd always said he would.\"\n\n\"Does your wife, then, not share some of the responsibility?\" asked K.\n\nHe had to force himself as he asked this question, as he, too, felt so\n\njealous now. \"Course she does,\" said the usher, \"it's more her fault\n\nthan theirs. It was her who attached herself to him. All he did, he just\n\nchases after any woman. There's five flats in this block alone where\n\nhe's been thrown out after working his way in there. And my wife is the\n\nbest looking woman in the whole building, but it's me who's not even\n\nallowed to defend himself.\" \"If that's how things are, then there's\n\nnothing that can be done,\" said K. \"Well why not?\" asked the usher.\n\n\"He's a coward that student, if he wants to lay a finger on my wife all\n\nyou'd have to do is give him such a good hiding he'd never dare do it\n\nagain. But I'm not allowed to do that, and nobody else is going to do me\n\nthe favour as they're all afraid of his power. The only one who could do\n\nit is a man like you.\" \"What, how could I do it?\" asked K. in\n\nastonishment. \"Well you're facing a charge, aren't you,\" said the usher.\n\n\"Yes, but that's all the more reason for me to be afraid. Even if he has\n\nno influence on the outcome of the trial he probably has some on the\n\ninitial examination.\" \"Yes, exactly,\" said the usher, as if K.'s view\n\nhad been just as correct as his own. \"Only we don't usually get any\n\ntrials heard here with no hope at all.\" \"I am not of the same opinion,\"\n\nsaid K., \"although that ought not to prevent me from dealing with the\n\nstudent if the opportunity arises.\" \"I would be very grateful to you,\"\n\nsaid the usher of the court, somewhat formally, not really seeming to\n\nbelieve that his highest wish could be fulfilled. \"Perhaps,\" continued\n\nK., \"perhaps there are some other officials of yours here, perhaps all\n\nof them, who would deserve the same.\" \"Oh yes, yes,\" said the usher, as\n\nif this was a matter of course. Then he looked at K. trustingly which,\n\ndespite all his friendliness, he had not done until then, and added,\n\n\"they're always rebelling.\" But the conversation seemed to have become a\n\nlittle uncomfortable for him, as he broke it off by saying, \"now I have\n\nto report to the office. Would you like to come with me?\" \"There's\n\nnothing for me to do there,\" said K. \"You'd be able to have a look at\n\nit. No-one will take any notice of you.\" \"Is it worth seeing then?\"\n\nasked K. hesitatingly, although he felt very keen to go with him.\n\n\"Well,\" said the usher, \"I thought you'd be interested in it.\" \"Alright\n\nthen,\" said K. finally, \"I'll come with you.\" And, quicker than the\n\nusher himself, he ran up the steps.\n\n\n\nAt the entrance he nearly fell over, as behind the door there was\n\nanother step. \"They don't show much concern for the public,\" he said.\n\n\"They don't show any concern at all,\" said the usher, \"just look at the\n\nwaiting room here.\" It consisted of a long corridor from which roughly\n\nmade doors led out to the separate departments of the attic. There was\n\nno direct source of light but it was not entirely dark as many of the\n\ndepartments, instead of solid walls, had just wooden bars reaching up to\n\nthe ceiling to separate them from the corridor. The light made its way\n\nin through them, and it was also possible to see individual officials\n\nthrough them as they sat writing at their desks or stood up at the\n\nwooden frameworks and watched the people on the corridor through the\n\ngaps. There were only a few people in the corridor, probably because it\n\nwas Sunday. They were not very impressive. They sat, equally spaced, on\n\ntwo rows of long wooden benches which had been placed along both sides\n\nof the corridor. All of them were carelessly dressed although the\n\nexpressions on their faces, their bearing, the style of their beards and\n\nmany details which were hard to identify showed that they belonged to\n\nthe upper classes. There were no coat hooks for them to use, and so they\n\nhad placed their hats under the bench, each probably having followed the\n\nexample of the others. When those who were sitting nearest the door saw\n\nK. and the usher of the court they stood up to greet them, and when the\n\nothers saw that, they also thought they had to greet them, so that as\n\nthe two of them went by all the people there stood up. None of them\n\nstood properly upright, their backs were bowed, their knees bent, they\n\nstood like beggars on the street. K. waited for the usher, who was\n\nfollowing just behind him. \"They must all be very dispirited,\" he said.\n\n\"Yes,\" said the usher, \"they are the accused, everyone you see here has\n\nbeen accused.\" \"Really!\" said K. \"They're colleagues of mine then.\" And\n\nhe turned to the nearest one, a tall, thin man with hair that was nearly\n\ngrey. \"What is it you are waiting for here?\" asked K., politely, but the\n\nman was startled at being spoken to unexpectedly, which was all the more\n\npitiful to see because the man clearly had some experience of the world\n\nand elsewhere would certainly have been able to show his superiority and\n\nwould not have easily given up the advantage he had acquired. Here,\n\nthough, he did not know what answer to give to such a simple question\n\nand looked round at the others as if they were under some obligation to\n\nhelp him, and as if no-one could expect any answer from him without this\n\nhelp. Then the usher of the court stepped forward to him and, in order\n\nto calm him down and raise his spirits, said, \"The gentleman here's only\n\nasking what it is you're waiting for. You can give him an answer.\" The\n\nvoice of the usher was probably familiar to him, and had a better effect\n\nthan K.'s. \"I'm ... I'm waiting....\" he began, and then came to a halt.\n\nHe had clearly chosen this beginning so that he could give a precise\n\nanswer to the question, but now he didn't know how to continue. Some of\n\nthe others waiting had come closer and stood round the group, the usher\n\nof the court said to them, \"Get out the way, keep the gangway free.\"\n\nThey moved back slightly, but not as far as where they had been sitting\n\nbefore. In the meantime, the man whom K. had first approached had pulled\n\nhimself together and even answered him with a smile. \"A month ago I made\n\nsome applications for evidence to be heard in my case, and I'm waiting\n\nfor it to be settled.\" \"You certainly seem to be going to a lot of\n\neffort,\" said K. \"Yes,\" said the man, \"it is my affair after all.\" \"Not\n\neveryone thinks the same way as you do,\" said K. \"I've been indicted as\n\nwell but I swear on my soul that I've neither submitted evidence nor\n\ndone anything else of the sort. Do you really think that's necessary?\"\n\n\"I don't really know, exactly,\" said the man, once more totally unsure\n\nof himself; he clearly thought K. was joking with him and therefore\n\nprobably thought it best to repeat his earlier answer in order to avoid\n\nmaking any new mistakes. With K. looking at him impatiently, he just\n\nsaid, \"as far as I'm concerned, I've applied to have this evidence\n\nheard.\" \"Perhaps you don't believe I've been indicted?\" asked K. \"Oh,\n\nplease, I certainly do,\" said the man, stepping slightly to one side,\n\nbut there was more anxiety in his answer than belief. \"You don't believe\n\nme then?\" asked K., and took hold of his arm, unconsciously prompted by\n\nthe man's humble demeanour, and as if he wanted to force him to believe\n\nhim. But he did not want to hurt the man and had only taken hold of him\n\nvery lightly. Nonetheless, the man cried out as if K. had grasped him\n\nnot with two fingers but with red hot tongs. Shouting in this ridiculous\n\nway finally made K. tired of him, if he didn't believe he was indicted\n\nthen so much the better; maybe he even thought K. was a judge. And\n\nbefore leaving, he held him a lot harder, shoved him back onto the bench\n\nand walked on. \"These defendants are so sensitive, most of them,\" said\n\nthe usher of the court. Almost all of those who had been waiting had now\n\nassembled around the man who, by now, had stopped shouting and they\n\nseemed to be asking him lots of precise questions about the incident. K.\n\nwas approached by a security guard, identifiable mainly by his sword, of\n\nwhich the scabbard seemed to be made of aluminium. This greatly\n\nsurprised K., and he reached out for it with his hand. The guard had\n\ncome because of the shouting and asked what had been happening. The\n\nusher of the court said a few words to try and calm him down but the\n\nguard explained that he had to look into it himself, saluted, and\n\nhurried on, walking with very short steps, probably because of gout.\n\n\n\nK. didn't concern himself long with the guard or these people,\n\nespecially as he saw a turning off the corridor, about half way along\n\nit on the right hand side, where there was no door to stop him going\n\nthat way. He asked the usher whether that was the right way to go, the\n\nusher nodded, and that is the way that K. went. The usher remained\n\nalways one or two steps behind K., which he found irritating as in a\n\nplace like this it could give the impression that he was being driven\n\nalong by someone who had arrested him, so he frequently waited for the\n\nusher to catch up, but the usher always remained behind him. In order to\n\nput an end to his discomfort, K. finally said, \"Now that I've seen what\n\nit looks like here, I'd like to go.\" \"You haven't seen everything yet,\"\n\nsaid the usher ingenuously. \"I don't want to see everything,\" said K.,\n\nwho was also feeling very tired, \"I want to go, what is the way to the\n\nexit?\" \"You haven't got lost, have you?\" asked the usher in amazement,\n\n\"you go down this way to the corner, then right down the corridor\n\nstraight ahead as far as the door.\" \"Come with me,\" said K., \"show me\n\nthe way, I'll miss it, there are so many different ways here.\" \"It's the\n\nonly way there is,\" said the usher, who had now started to sound quite\n\nreproachful, \"I can't go back with you again, I've got to hand in my\n\nreport, and I've already lost a lot of time because of you as it is.\"\n\n\"Come with me!\" K. repeated, now somewhat sharper as if he had finally\n\ncaught the usher out in a lie. \"Don't shout like that,\" whispered the\n\nusher, \"there's offices all round us here. If you don't want to go back\n\nby yourself come on a bit further with me or else wait here till I've\n\nsorted out my report, then I'll be glad to go back with you again.\" \"No,\n\nno,\" said K., \"I will not wait and you must come with me now.\" K. had\n\nstill not looked round at anything at all in the room where he found\n\nhimself, and it was only when one of the many wooden doors all around\n\nhim opened that he noticed it. A young woman, probably summoned by the\n\nloudness of K.'s voice, entered and asked, \"What is it the gentleman\n\nwants?\" In the darkness behind her there was also a man approaching. K.\n\nlooked at the usher. He had, after all, said that no-one would take any\n\nnotice of K., and now there were two people coming, it only needed a few\n\nand everyone in the office would become aware of him and asking for\n\nexplanations as to why he was there. The only understandable and\n\nacceptable thing to say was that he was accused of something and wanted\n\nto know the date of his next hearing, but this was an explanation he did\n\nnot want to give, especially as it was not true--he had only come out of\n\ncuriosity. Or else, an explanation even less usable, he could say that\n\nhe wanted to ascertain that the court was as revolting on the inside as\n\nit was on the outside. And it did seem that he had been quite right in\n\nthis supposition, he had no wish to intrude any deeper, he was disturbed\n\nenough by what he had seen already, he was not in the right frame of\n\nmind just then to face a high official such as might appear from behind\n\nany door, and he wanted to go, either with the usher of the court or, if\n\nneeds be, alone.\n\n\n\nBut he must have seemed very odd standing there in silence, and the\n\nyoung woman and the usher were indeed looking at him as if they thought\n\nhe would go through some major metamorphosis any second which they\n\ndidn't want to miss seeing. And in the doorway stood the man whom K. had\n\nnoticed in the background earlier, he held firmly on to the beam above\n\nthe low door swinging a little on the tips of his feet as if becoming\n\nimpatient as he watched. But the young woman was the first to recognise\n\nthat K.'s behaviour was caused by his feeling slightly unwell, she\n\nbrought a chair and asked, \"Would you not like to sit down?\" K. sat down\n\nimmediately and, in order to keep his place better, put his elbows on\n\nthe armrests. \"You're a little bit dizzy, aren't you?\" she asked him.\n\nHer face was now close in front of him, it bore the severe expression\n\nthat many young women have just when they're in the bloom of their\n\nyouth. \"It's nothing for you to worry about,\" she said, \"that's nothing\n\nunusual here, almost everyone gets an attack like that the first time\n\nthey come here. This is your first time is it. Yes, it's nothing unusual\n\nthen. The sun burns down on the roof and the hot wood makes the air so\n\nthick and heavy. It makes this place rather unsuitable for offices,\n\nwhatever other advantages it might offer. But the air is almost\n\nimpossible to breathe on days when there's a lot of business, and that's\n\nalmost every day. And when you think that there's a lot of washing put\n\nout to dry here as well--and we can't stop the tenants doing that--it's\n\nnot surprising you started to feel unwell. But you get used to the air\n\nalright in the end. When you're here for the second or third time you'll\n\nhardly notice how oppressive the air is. Are you feeling any better\n\nnow?\" K. made no answer, he felt too embarrassed at being put at the\n\nmercy of these people by his sudden weakness, and learning the reason\n\nfor feeling ill made him feel not better but a little worse. The girl\n\nnoticed it straight away, and to make the air fresher for K., she took a\n\nwindow pole that was leaning against the wall and pushed open a small\n\nhatch directly above K.'s head that led to the outside. But so much soot\n\nfell in that the girl had to immediately close the hatch again and clean\n\nthe soot off K.'s hands with her handkerchief, as K. was too tired to do\n\nthat for himself. He would have liked just to sit quietly where he was\n\nuntil he had enough strength to leave, and the less fuss people made\n\nabout him the sooner that would be. But then the girl said, \"You can't\n\nstay here, we're in people's way here....\" K. looked at her as if to ask\n\nwhose way they were impeding. \"If you like, I can take you to the sick\n\nroom,\" and turning to the man in the doorway said, \"please help me.\" The\n\nman immediately came over to them, but K. did not want to go to the sick\n\nroom, that was just what he wanted to avoid, being led further from\n\nplace to place, the further he went the more difficult it must become.\n\nSo he said, \"I am able to walk now,\" and stood up, shaking after\n\nbecoming used to sitting so comfortably. But then he was unable to stay\n\nupright. \"I can't manage it,\" he said shaking his head, and sat down\n\nagain with a sigh. He remembered the usher who, despite everything,\n\nwould have been able to lead him out of there but who seemed to have\n\ngone long before. K. looked out between the man and the young woman who\n\nwere standing in front of him but was unable to find the usher. \"I\n\nthink,\" said the man, who was elegantly dressed and whose appearance was\n\nmade especially impressive with a grey waistcoat that had two long,\n\nsharply tailored points, \"the gentleman is feeling unwell because of the\n\natmosphere here, so the best thing, and what he would most prefer, would\n\nbe not to take him to the sick room but get him out of the offices\n\naltogether.\" \"That's right,\" exclaimed K., with such joy that he nearly\n\ninterrupted what the man was saying, \"I'm sure that'll make me feel\n\nbetter straight away, I'm really not that weak, all I need is a little\n\nsupport under my arms, I won't cause you much trouble, it's not such a\n\nlong way anyway, lead me to the door and then I'll sit on the stairs for\n\na while and soon recover, as I don't suffer from attacks like this at\n\nall, I'm surprised at it myself. I also work in an office and I'm quite\n\nused to office air, but here it seems to be too strong, you've said so\n\nyourselves. So please, be so kind as to help me on my way a little, I'm\n\nfeeling dizzy, you see, and it'll make me ill if I stand up by myself.\"\n\nAnd with that he raised his shoulders to make it easier for the two of\n\nthem to take him by the arms.\n\n\n\nThe man, however, didn't follow this suggestion but just stood there\n\nwith his hands in his trouser pockets and laughed out loud. \"There, you\n\nsee,\" he said to the girl, \"I was quite right. The gentleman is only\n\nunwell here, and not in general.\" The young woman smiled too, but\n\nlightly tapped the man's arm with the tips of her fingers as if he had\n\nallowed himself too much fun with K. \"So what do you think, then?\" said\n\nthe man, still laughing, \"I really do want to lead the gentleman out of\n\nhere.\" \"That's alright, then,\" said the girl, briefly inclining her\n\ncharming head. \"Don't worry too much about him laughing,\" said the girl\n\nto K., who had become unhappy once more and stared quietly in front of\n\nhimself as if needing no further explanation. \"This gentleman--may I\n\nintroduce you?\"--(the man gave his permission with a wave of the\n\nhand)--\"so, this gentleman's job is to give out information. He gives\n\nall the information they need to people who are waiting, as our court\n\nand its offices are not very well known among the public he gets asked\n\nfor quite a lot. He has an answer for every question, you can try him\n\nout if you feel like it. But that's not his only distinction, his other\n\ndistinction is his elegance of dress. We, that's to say all of us who\n\nwork in the offices here, we decided that the information-giver would\n\nhave to be elegantly dressed as he continually has to deal with the\n\nlitigants and he's the first one they meet, so he needs to give a\n\ndignified first impression. The rest of us I'm afraid, as you can see\n\njust by looking at me, dress very badly and old-fashioned; and there's\n\nnot much point in spending much on clothes anyway, as we hardly ever\n\nleave the offices, we even sleep here. But, as I said, we decided that\n\nthe information-giver would have to have nice clothes. As the management\n\nhere is rather peculiar in this respect, and they would get them for us,\n\nwe had a collection--some of the litigants contributed too--and bought\n\nhim these lovely clothes and some others besides. So everything would be\n\nready for him to give a good impression, except that he spoils it again\n\nby laughing and frightening people.\" \"That's how it is,\" said the man,\n\nmocking her, \"but I don't understand why it is that you're explaining\n\nall our intimate facts to the gentleman, or rather why it is that you're\n\npressing them on him, as I'm sure he's not all interested. Just look at\n\nhim sitting there, it's clear he's occupied with his own affairs.\" K.\n\njust did not feel like contradicting him. The girl's intention may have\n\nbeen good, perhaps she was under instructions to distract him or to give\n\nhim the chance to collect himself, but the attempt had not worked. \"I\n\nhad to explain to him why you were laughing,\" said the girl. \"I suppose\n\nit was insulting.\" \"I think he would forgive even worse insults if I\n\nfinally took him outside.\" K. said nothing, did not even look up, he\n\ntolerated the two of them negotiating over him like an object, that was\n\neven what suited him best. But suddenly he felt the information-giver's\n\nhand on one arm and the young woman's hand on the other. \"Up you get\n\nthen, weakling,\" said the information-giver. \"Thank you both very much,\"\n\nsaid K., pleasantly surprised, as he slowly rose and personally guided\n\nthese unfamiliar hands to the places where he most needed support. As\n\nthey approached the corridor, the girl said quietly into K.'s ear, \"I\n\nmust seem to think it's very important to show the information-giver in\n\na good light, but you shouldn't doubt what I say, I just want to say the\n\ntruth. He isn't hard-hearted. It's not really his job to help litigants\n\noutside if they're unwell but he's doing it anyway, as you can see. I\n\ndon't suppose any of us is hard-hearted, perhaps we'd all like to be\n\nhelpful, but working for the court offices it's easy for us to give the\n\nimpression we are hard-hearted and don't want to help anyone. It makes\n\nme quite sad.\" \"Would you not like to sit down here a while?\" asked the\n\ninformation-giver, there were already in the corridor and just in front\n\nof the defendant whom K. had spoken to earlier. K. felt almost ashamed\n\nto be seen by him, earlier he had stood so upright in front of him and\n\nnow he had to be supported by two others, his hat was held up by the\n\ninformation-giver balanced on outstretched fingers, his hair was\n\ndishevelled and hung down onto the sweat on his forehead. But the\n\ndefendant seemed to notice nothing of what was going on and just stood\n\nthere humbly, as if wanting to apologise to the information-giver for\n\nbeing there. The information-giver looked past him. \"I know,\" he said,\n\n\"that my case can't be settled today, not yet, but I've come in anyway,\n\nI thought, I thought I could wait here anyway, it's Sunday today, I've\n\ngot plenty of time, and I'm not disturbing anyone here.\" \"There's no\n\nneed to be so apologetic,\" said the information-giver, \"it's very\n\ncommendable for you to be so attentive. You are taking up space here\n\nwhen you don't need to but as long as you don't get in my way I will do\n\nnothing to stop you following the progress of your case as closely as\n\nyou like. When one has seen so many people who shamefully neglect their\n\ncases one learns to show patience with people like you. Do sit down.\"\n\n\"He's very good with the litigants,\" whispered the girl. K. nodded, but\n\nstarted to move off again when the information-giver repeated, \"Would\n\nyou not like to sit down here a while?\" \"No,\" said K., \"I don't want to\n\nrest.\" He had said that as decisively as he could, but in fact it would\n\nhave done him a lot of good to sit down. It was as if he were suffering\n\nsea-sickness. He felt as if he were on a ship in a rough sea, as if the\n\nwater were hitting against the wooden walls, a thundering from the\n\ndepths of the corridor as if the torrent were crashing over it, as if\n\nthe corridor were swaying and the waiting litigants on each side of it\n\nrising and sinking. It made the calmness of the girl and the man leading\n\nhim all the more incomprehensible. He was at their mercy, if they let go\n\nof him he would fall like a board. Their little eyes glanced here and\n\nthere, K. could feel the evenness of their steps but could not do the\n\nsame, as from step to step he was virtually being carried. He finally\n\nnoticed they were speaking to him but he did not understand them, all he\n\nheard was a noise that filled all the space and through which there\n\nseemed to be an unchanging higher note sounding, like a siren. \"Louder,\"\n\nhe whispered with his head sunk low, ashamed at having to ask them to\n\nspeak louder when he knew they had spoken loudly enough, even if it had\n\nbeen, for him, incomprehensible. At last, a draught of cool air blew in\n\nhis face as if a gap had been torn out in the wall in front of him, and\n\nnext to him he heard someone say, \"First he says he wants to go, and\n\nthen you can tell him a hundred times that this is the way out and he\n\ndoesn't move.\" K. became aware that he was standing in front of the way\n\nout, and that the young woman had opened the door. It seemed to him that\n\nall his strength returned to him at once, and to get a foretaste of\n\nfreedom he stepped straight on to one of the stairs and took his leave\n\nthere of his companions, who bowed to him. \"Thank you very much,\" he\n\nrepeated, shook their hands once more and did not let go until he\n\nthought he saw that they found it hard to bear the comparatively fresh\n\nair from the stairway after being so long used to the air in the\n\noffices. They were hardly able to reply, and the young woman might even\n\nhave fallen over if K. had not shut the door extremely fast. K. then\n\nstood still for a while, combed his hair with the help of a pocket\n\nmirror, picked up his hat from the next stair--the information-giver\n\nmust have thrown it down there--and then he ran down the steps so fresh\n\nand in such long leaps that the contrast with his previous state nearly\n\nfrightened him. His normally sturdy state of health had never prepared\n\nhim for surprises such as this. Did his body want to revolt and cause\n\nhim a new trial as he was bearing the old one with such little effort?\n\nHe did not quite reject the idea that he should see a doctor the next\n\ntime he had the chance, but whatever he did--and this was something on\n\nwhich he could advise himself--he wanted to spend all Sunday mornings in\n\nfuture better than he had spent this one.",
    "word_count": 9446
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 7,
    "title": "Chapter Seven",
    "content": "Four",
    "word_count": 1
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 8,
    "title": "Chapter Eight",
    "content": "Miss Bürstner's Friend\n\n\n\n\n\nFor some time after this, K. found it impossible to exchange even just a\n\nfew words with Miss Bürstner. He tried to reach her in many and various\n\nways but she always found a way to avoid it. He would come straight home\n\nfrom the office, remain in her room without the light on, and sit on the\n\nsofa with nothing more to distract him than keeping watch on the empty\n\nhallway. If the maid went by and closed the door of the apparently empty\n\nroom he would get up after a while and open it again. He got up an hour\n\nearlier than usual in the morning so that he might perhaps find Miss\n\nBürstner alone as she went to the office. But none of these efforts\n\nbrought any success. Then he wrote her a letter, both to the office and\n\nthe flat, attempting once more to justify his behaviour, offered to make\n\nwhatever amends he could, promised never to cross whatever boundary she\n\nmight set him and begged merely to have the chance to speak to her some\n\ntime, especially as he was unable to do anything with Mrs. Grubach\n\neither until he had spoken with Miss Bürstner, he finally informed her\n\nthat the following Sunday he would stay in his room all day waiting for\n\na sign from her that there was some hope of his request being fulfilled,\n\nor at least that she would explain to him why she could not fulfil it\n\neven though he had promised to observe whatever stipulations she might\n\nmake. The letters were not returned, but there was no answer either.\n\nHowever, on the following Sunday there was a sign that seemed clear\n\nenough. It was still early when K. noticed, through the keyhole, that\n\nthere was an unusual level of activity in the hallway which soon abated.\n\nA French teacher, although she was German and called Montag, a pale and\n\nfebrile girl with a slight limp who had previously occupied a room of\n\nher own, was moving into Miss Bürstner's room. She could be seen\n\nshuffling through the hallway for several hours, there was always\n\nanother piece of clothing or a blanket or a book that she had forgotten\n\nand had to be fetched specially and brought into the new home.\n\n\n\nWhen Mrs. Grubach brought K. his breakfast--ever since the time when she\n\nhad made K. so cross she didn't trust the maid to do the slightest\n\njob--he had no choice but to speak to her, for the first time in five\n\ndays. \"Why is there so much noise in the hallway today?\" he asked as she\n\npoured his coffee out, \"Can't something be done about it? Does this\n\nclearing out have to be done on a Sunday?\" K. did not look up at Mrs.\n\nGrubach, but he saw nonetheless that she seemed to feel some relief as\n\nshe breathed in. Even sharp questions like this from Mr. K. she\n\nperceived as forgiveness, or as the beginning of forgiveness. \"We're not\n\nclearing anything out, Mr. K.,\" she said, \"it's just that Miss Montag is\n\nmoving in with Miss Bürstner and is moving her things across.\" She said\n\nnothing more, but just waited to see how K. would take it and whether he\n\nwould allow her to carry on speaking. But K. kept her in uncertainty,\n\ntook the spoon and pensively stirred his coffee while he remained\n\nsilent. Then he looked up at her and said, \"What about the suspicions\n\nyou had earlier about Miss Bürstner, have you given them up?\" \"Mr. K.,\"\n\ncalled Mrs. Grubach, who had been waiting for this very question, as she\n\nput her hands together and held them out towards him. \"I just made a\n\nchance remark and you took it so badly. I didn't have the slightest\n\nintention of offending anyone, not you or anyone else. You've known me\n\nfor long enough, Mr. K., I'm sure you're convinced of that. You don't\n\nknow how I've been suffering for the past few days! That I should tell\n\nlies about my tenants! And you, Mr. K., you believed it! And said I\n\nshould give you notice! Give you notice!\" At this last outcry, Mrs.\n\nGrubach was already choking back her tears, she raised her apron to her\n\nface and blubbered out loud.\n\n\n\n\"Oh, don't cry Mrs. Grubach,\" said K., looking out the window, he was\n\nthinking only of Miss Bürstner and how she was accepting an unknown girl\n\ninto her room. \"Now don't cry,\" he said again as he turned his look back\n\ninto the room where Mrs. Grubach was still crying. \"I meant no harm\n\neither when I said that. It was simply a misunderstanding between us.\n\nThat can happen even between old friends sometimes.\" Mrs. Grubach pulled\n\nher apron down to below her eyes to see whether K. really was attempting\n\na reconciliation. \"Well, yes, that's how it is,\" said K., and as Mrs.\n\nGrubach's behaviour indicated that the captain had said nothing he dared\n\nto add, \"Do you really think, then, that I'd want to make an enemy of\n\nyou for the sake of a girl we hardly know?\" \"Yes, you're quite right,\n\nMr. K.,\" said Mrs. Grubach, and then, to her misfortune, as soon as she\n\nfelt just a little freer to speak, she added something rather inept. \"I\n\nkept asking myself why it was that Mr. K. took such an interest in Miss\n\nBürstner. Why does he quarrel with me over her when he knows that any\n\ncross word from him and I can't sleep that night? And I didn't say\n\nanything about Miss Bürstner that I hadn't seen with my own eyes.\" K.\n\nsaid nothing in reply, he should have chased her from the room as soon\n\nas she had opened her mouth, and he didn't want to do that. He contented\n\nhimself with merely drinking his coffee and letting Mrs. Grubach feel\n\nthat she was superfluous. Outside, the dragging steps of Miss Montag\n\ncould still be heard as she went from one side of the hallway to the\n\nother. \"Do you hear that?\" asked K. pointing his hand at the door.\n\n\"Yes,\" said Mrs. Grubach with a sigh, \"I wanted to give her some help\n\nand I wanted the maid to help her too but she's stubborn, she wants to\n\nmove everything in herself. I wonder at Miss Bürstner. I often feel it's\n\na burden for me to have Miss Montag as a tenant but Miss Bürstner\n\naccepts her into her room with herself.\" \"There's nothing there for you\n\nto worry about,\" said K., crushing the remains of a sugar lump in his\n\ncup. \"Does she cause you any trouble?\" \"No,\" said Mrs. Grubach, \"in\n\nitself it's very good to have her there, it makes another room free for\n\nme and I can let my nephew, the captain, occupy it. I began to worry he\n\nmight be disturbing you when I had to let him live in the living room\n\nnext to you over the last few days. He's not very considerate.\" \"What an\n\nidea!\" said K. standing up, \"there's no question of that. You seem to\n\nthink that because I can't stand this to-ing and fro-ing of Miss Montag\n\nthat I'm over-sensitive--and there she goes back again.\" Mrs. Grubach\n\nappeared quite powerless. \"Should I tell her to leave moving the rest of\n\nher things over till later, then, Mr. K.? If that's what you want I'll\n\ndo it immediately.\" \"But she has to move in with Miss Bürstner!\" said K.\n\n\"Yes,\" said Mrs. Grubach, without quite understanding what K. meant. \"So\n\nshe has to take her things over there.\" Mrs. Grubach just nodded. K. was\n\nirritated all the more by this dumb helplessness which, seen from the\n\noutside, could have seemed like a kind of defiance on her part. He began\n\nto walk up and down the room between the window and the door, thus\n\ndepriving Mrs. Grubach of the chance to leave, which she otherwise\n\nprobably would have done.\n\n\n\nJust as K. once more reached the door, someone knocked at it. It was the\n\nmaid, to say that Miss Montag would like to have a few words with Mr.\n\nK., and therefore requested that he come to the dining room where she\n\nwas waiting for him. K. heard the maid out thoughtfully, and then looked\n\nback at the shocked Mrs. Grubach in a way that was almost contemptuous.\n\nHis look seemed to be saying that K. had been expecting this invitation\n\nfor Miss Montag for a long time, and that it was confirmation of the\n\nsuffering he had been made to endure that Sunday morning from Mrs.\n\nGrubach's tenants. He sent the maid back with the reply that he was on\n\nhis way, then he went to the wardrobe to change his coat, and in answer\n\nto Mrs. Grubach's gentle whining about the nuisance Miss Montag was\n\ncausing merely asked her to clear away the breakfast things. \"But you've\n\nhardly touched it,\" said Mrs. Grubach. \"Oh just take it away!\" shouted\n\nK. It seemed to him that Miss Montag was mixed up in everything and made\n\nit repulsive to him.\n\n\n\nAs he went through the hallway he looked at the closed door of Miss\n\nBürstner's room. But it wasn't there that he was invited, but the dining\n\nroom, to which he yanked the door open without knocking.\n\n\n\nThe room was long but narrow with one window. There was only enough\n\nspace available to put two cupboards at an angle in the corner by the\n\ndoor, and the rest of the room was entirely taken up with the long\n\ndining table which started by the door and reached all the way to the\n\ngreat window, which was thus made almost inaccessible. The table was\n\nalready laid for a large number of people, as on Sundays almost all the\n\ntenants ate their dinner here at midday.\n\n\n\nWhen K. entered, Miss Montag came towards him from the window along one\n\nside of the table. They greeted each other in silence. Then Miss Montag,\n\nher head unusually erect as always, said, \"I'm not sure whether you know\n\nme.\" K. looked at her with a frown. \"Of course I do,\" he said, \"you've\n\nbeen living here with Mrs. Grubach for quite some time now.\" \"But I get\n\nthe impression you don't pay much attention to what's going on in the\n\nlodging house,\" said Miss Montag. \"No,\" said K. \"Would you not like to\n\nsit down?\" said Miss Montag. In silence, the two of them drew chairs out\n\nfrom the farthest end of the table and sat down facing each other. But\n\nMiss Montag stood straight up again as she had left her handbag on the\n\nwindow sill and went to fetch it; she shuffled down the whole length of\n\nthe room. When she came back, the handbag lightly swinging, she said,\n\n\"I'd like just to have a few words with you on behalf of my friend. She\n\nwould have come herself, but she's feeling a little unwell today.\n\nPerhaps you'll be kind enough to forgive her and listen to me instead.\n\nThere's anyway nothing that she could have said that I won't. On the\n\ncontrary, in fact, I think I can say even more than her because I'm\n\nrelatively impartial. Would you not agree?\" \"What is there to say,\n\nthen?\" answered K., who was tired of Miss Montag continuously watching\n\nhis lips. In that way she took control of what he wanted to say before\n\nhe said it. \"Miss Bürstner clearly refuses to grant me the personal\n\nmeeting that I asked her for.\" \"That's how it is,\" said Miss Montag, \"or\n\nrather, that's not at all how it is, the way you put it is remarkably\n\nsevere. Generally speaking, meetings are neither granted nor the\n\nopposite. But it can be that meetings are considered unnecessary, and\n\nthat's how it is here. Now, after your comment, I can speak openly. You\n\nasked my friend, verbally or in writing, for the chance to speak with\n\nher. Now my friend is aware of your reasons for asking for this\n\nmeeting--or at least I suppose she is--and so, for reasons I know\n\nnothing about, she is quite sure that it would be of no benefit to\n\nanyone if this meeting actually took place. Moreover, it was only\n\nyesterday, and only very briefly, that she made it clear to me that such\n\na meeting could be of no benefit for yourself either, she feels that it\n\ncan only have been a matter of chance that such an idea came to you, and\n\nthat even without any explanations from her, you will very soon come to\n\nrealise yourself, if you have not done so already, the futility of your\n\nidea. My answer to that is that although it may be quite right, I\n\nconsider it advantageous, if the matter is to be made perfectly clear,\n\nto give you an explicit answer. I offered my services in taking on the\n\ntask, and after some hesitation my friend conceded. I hope, however,\n\nalso to have acted in your interests, as even the slightest uncertainty\n\nin the least significant of matters will always remain a cause of\n\nsuffering and if, as in this case, it can be removed without substantial\n\neffort, then it is better if that is done without delay.\" \"I thank you,\"\n\nsaid K. as soon as Miss Montag had finished. He stood slowly up, looked\n\nat her, then across the table, then out the window--the house opposite\n\nstood there in the sun--and went to the door. Miss Montag followed him a\n\nfew paces, as if she did not quite trust him. At the door, however, both\n\nof them had to step back as it opened and Captain Lanz entered. This was\n\nthe first time that K. had seen him close up. He was a large man of\n\nabout forty with a tanned, fleshy face. He bowed slightly, intending it\n\nalso for K., and then went over to Miss Montag and deferentially kissed\n\nher hand. He was very elegant in the way he moved. The courtesy he\n\nshowed towards Miss Montag made a striking contrast with the way she had\n\nbeen treated by K. Nonetheless, Miss Montag did not seem to be cross\n\nwith K. as it even seemed to him that she wanted to introduce the\n\ncaptain. K. however, did not want to be introduced, he would not have\n\nbeen able to show any sort of friendliness either to Miss Montag or to\n\nthe captain, the kiss on the hand had, for K., bound them into a group\n\nwhich would keep him at a distance from Miss Bürstner whilst at the same\n\ntime seeming to be totally harmless and unselfish. K. thought, however,\n\nthat he saw more than that, he thought he also saw that Miss Montag had\n\nchosen a means of doing it that was good, but two-edged. She exaggerated\n\nthe importance of the relationship between K. and Miss Bürstner, and\n\nabove all she exaggerated the importance of asking to speak with her and\n\nshe tried at the same time to make out that K. was exaggerating\n\neverything. She would be disappointed, K. did not want to exaggerate\n\nanything, he was aware that Miss Bürstner was a little typist who would\n\nnot offer him much resistance for long. In doing so he deliberately took\n\nno account of what Mrs. Grubach had told him about Miss Bürstner. All\n\nthese things were going through his mind as he left the room with hardly\n\na polite word. He wanted to go straight to his room, but a little laugh\n\nfrom Miss Montag that he heard from the dining room behind him brought\n\nhim to the idea that he might prepare a surprise for the two of them,\n\nthe captain and Miss Montag. He looked round and listened to find out if\n\nthere might be any disturbance from any of the surrounding rooms,\n\neverywhere was quiet, the only thing to be heard was the conversation\n\nfrom the dining room and Mrs. Grubach's voice from the passage leading\n\nto the kitchen. This seemed an opportune time, K. went to Miss\n\nBürstner's room and knocked gently. There was no sound so he knocked\n\nagain but there was still no answer in reply. Was she asleep? Or was\n\nshe really unwell? Or was she just pretending as she realised it could\n\nonly be K. knocking so gently? K. assumed she was pretending and\n\nknocked harder, eventually, when the knocking brought no result, he\n\ncarefully opened the door with the sense of doing something that was not\n\nonly improper but also pointless. In the room there was no-one. What's\n\nmore, it looked hardly at all like the room K. had known before. Against\n\nthe wall there were now two beds behind one another, there were clothes\n\npiled up on three chairs near the door, a wardrobe stood open. Miss\n\nBürstner must have gone out while Miss Montag was speaking to him in the\n\ndining room. K. was not greatly bothered by this, he had hardly expected\n\nto be able to find Miss Bürstner so easily and had made this attempt for\n\nlittle more reason than to spite Miss Montag. But that made it all the\n\nmore embarrassing for him when, as he was closing the door again, he saw\n\nMiss Montag and the captain talking in the open doorway of the dining\n\nroom. They had probably been standing there ever since K. had opened the\n\ndoor, they avoided seeming to observe K. but chatted lightly and\n\nfollowed his movements with glances, the absent minded glances to the\n\nside such as you make during a conversation. But these glances were\n\nheavy for K., and he rushed alongside the wall back into his own room.",
    "word_count": 2960
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 9,
    "title": "Chapter Nine",
    "content": "Five",
    "word_count": 1
  },
  {
    "chapter_number": 10,
    "title": "Chapter Ten",
    "content": "The whip-man\n\n\n\n\n\nOne evening, a few days later, K. was walking along one of the corridors\n\nthat separated his office from the main stairway--he was nearly the last\n\none to leave for home that evening, there remained only a couple of\n\nworkers in the light of a single bulb in the dispatch department--when\n\nhe heard a sigh from behind a door which he had himself never opened but\n\nwhich he had always thought just led into a junk room. He stood in\n\namazement and listened again to establish whether he might not be\n\nmistaken. For a while there was silence, but then came some more sighs.\n\nHis first thought was to fetch one of the servitors, it might well have\n\nbeen worth having a witness present, but then he was taken by an\n\nuncontrollable curiosity that make him simply yank the door open. It\n\nwas, as he had thought, a junk room. Old, unusable forms, empty stone\n\nink-bottles lay scattered behind the entrance. But in the cupboard-like\n\nroom itself stood three men, crouching under the low ceiling. A candle\n\nfixed on a shelf gave them light. \"What are you doing here?\" asked K.\n\nquietly, but crossly and without thinking. One of the men was clearly in\n\ncharge, and attracted attention by being dressed in a kind of dark\n\nleather costume which left his neck and chest and his arms exposed. He\n\ndid not answer. But the other two called out, \"Mr. K.! We're to be\n\nbeaten because you made a complaint about us to the examining judge.\"\n\nAnd now, K. finally realised that it was actually the two policemen,\n\nFranz and Willem, and that the third man held a cane in his hand with\n\nwhich to beat them. \"Well,\" said K., staring at them, \"I didn't make any\n\ncomplaint, I only said what took place in my home. And your behaviour\n\nwas not entirely unobjectionable, after all.\" \"Mr. K.,\" said Willem,\n\nwhile Franz clearly tried to shelter behind him as protection from the\n\nthird man, \"if you knew how badly we get paid you wouldn't think so\n\nbadly of us. I've got a family to feed, and Franz here wanted to get\n\nmarried, you just have to get more money where you can, you can't do it\n\njust by working hard, not however hard you try. I was sorely tempted by\n\nyour fine clothes, policemen aren't allowed to do that sort of thing,\n\ncourse they aren't, and it wasn't right of us, but it's tradition that\n\nthe clothes go to the officers, that's how it's always been, believe me;\n\nand it's understandable too, isn't it, what can things like that mean\n\nfor anyone unlucky enough to be arrested. But if he starts talking about\n\nit openly then the punishment has to follow.\" \"I didn't know about any\n\nof this that you've been telling me, and I made no sort of request that\n\nyou be punished, I was simply acting on principle.\" \"Franz,\" said\n\nWillem, turning to the other policeman, \"didn't I tell you that the\n\ngentleman didn't say he wanted us to be punished. Now you can hear for\n\nyourself, he didn't even know we'd have to be punished.\" \"Don't you let\n\nthem persuade you, talking like that,\" said the third man to K., \"this\n\npunishment is both just and unavoidable.\" \"Don't listen to him,\" said\n\nWillem, interrupting himself only to quickly bring his hand to his mouth\n\nwhen it had received a stroke of the cane, \"we're only being punished\n\nbecause you made a complaint against us. Nothing would have happened to\n\nus otherwise, not even if they'd found out what we'd done. Can you call\n\nthat justice? Both of us, me especially, we'd proved our worth as good\n\npolice officers over a long period--you've got to admit yourself that as\n\nfar as official work was concerned we did the job well--things looked\n\ngood for us, we had prospects, it's quite certain that we would've been\n\nmade whip-men too, like this one, only he had the luck not to have\n\nanyone make a complaint about him, as you really don't get many\n\ncomplaints like that. Only that's all finished now, Mr. K., our careers\n\nare at an end, we're going to have to do work now that's far inferior to\n\npolice work and besides all this we're going to get this terrible,\n\npainful beating.\" \"Can the cane really cause so much pain, then?\" asked\n\nK., testing the cane that the whip-man swang in front of him. \"We're\n\ngoing to have to strip off totally naked,\" said Willem. \"Oh, I see,\"\n\nsaid K., looking straight at the whip-man, his skin was burned brown\n\nlike a sailor's, and his face showed health and vigour. \"Is there then\n\nno possibility of sparing these two their beating?\" he asked him. \"No,\"\n\nsaid the whip-man, shaking his head with a laugh. \"Get undressed!\" he\n\nordered the policemen. And to K. he said, \"You shouldn't believe\n\neverything they tell you, it's the fear of being beaten, it's already\n\nmade them a bit weak in the head. This one here, for instance,\" he\n\npointed at Willem, \"all that he told you about his career prospects,\n\nit's just ridiculous. Look at him, look how fat he is--the first strokes\n\nof the cane will just get lost in all that fat. Do you know what it is\n\nthat's made him so fat. He's in the habit of, everyone that gets\n\narrested by him, he eats their breakfast. Didn't he eat up your\n\nbreakfast? Yeah, I thought as much. But a man with a belly like that\n\ncan't be made into a whip-man and never will be, that is quite out of\n\nthe question.\" \"There are whip-men like that,\" Willem insisted, who had\n\njust released the belt of this trousers. \"No,\" said the whip-man,\n\nstriking him such a blow with the cane on his neck that it made him\n\nwince, \"you shouldn't be listening to this, just get undressed.\" \"I\n\nwould make it well worth your while if you would let them go,\" said K.,\n\nand without looking at the whip-man again--as such matters are best\n\ncarried on with both pairs of eyes turned down--he pulled out his\n\nwallet. \"And then you'd try and put in a complaint against me, too,\"\n\nsaid the whip-man, \"and get me flogged. No, no!\" \"Now, do be\n\nreasonable,\" said K., \"if I had wanted to get these two punished I would\n\nnot now be trying to buy their freedom, would I? I could simply close\n\nthe door here behind me, go home and see or hear nothing more of it. But\n\nthat's not what I'm doing, it really is of much more importance to me to\n\nlet them go free; if I had realised they would be punished, or even that\n\nthey might be punished, I would never have named them in the first place\n\nas they are not the ones I hold responsible. It's the organisation\n\nthat's to blame, the high officials are the ones to blame.\" \"That's how\n\nit is!\" shouted the policemen, who then immediately received another\n\nblow on their backs, which were by now exposed. \"If you had a senior\n\njudge here beneath your stick,\" said K., pressing down the cane as he\n\nspoke to stop it being raised once more, \"I really would do nothing to\n\nstop you, on the contrary, I would even pay you money to give you all\n\nthe more strength.\" \"Yeah, that's all very plausible, what you're saying\n\nthere,\" said the whip-man, \"only I'm not the sort of person you can\n\nbribe. It's my job to flog people, so I flog them.\" Franz, the\n\npoliceman, had been fairly quiet so far, probably in expectation of a\n\ngood result from K.'s intervention, but now he stepped forward to the\n\ndoor wearing just his trousers, knelt down hanging on to K.'s arm and\n\nwhispered, \"Even if you can't get mercy shown for both of us, at least\n\ntry and get me set free. Willem is older than me, he's less sensitive\n\nthan me in every way, he even got a light beating a couple of years\n\nago, but my record's still clean, I only did things the way I did\n\nbecause Willem led me on to it, he's been my teacher both for good and\n\nbad. Down in front of the bank my poor bride is waiting for me at the\n\nentrance, I'm so ashamed of myself, it's pitiful.\" His face was flowing\n\nover with tears, and he wiped it dry on K.'s coat. \"I'm not going to\n\nwait any longer,\" said the whip-man, taking hold of the cane in both\n\nhands and laying in to Franz while Willem cowered back in a corner and\n\nlooked on secretly, not even daring to turn his head. Then, the sudden\n\nscream that shot out from Franz was long and irrevocable, it seemed to\n\ncome not from a human being but from an instrument that was being\n\ntortured, the whole corridor rang with it, it must have been heard by\n\neveryone in the building. \"Don't shout like that!\", called out K.,\n\nunable to prevent himself, and, as he looked anxiously in the direction\n\nfrom which the servitor would come, he gave Franz a shove, not hard, but\n\nhard enough for him to fall down unconscious, clawing at the ground with\n\nhis hands by reflex; he still did not avoid being hit; the rod still\n\nfound him on the floor; the tip of the rod swang regularly up and down\n\nwhile he rolled to and fro under its blows. And now one of the servitors\n\nappeared in the distance, with another a few steps behind him. K. had\n\nquickly thrown the door shut, gone over to one of the windows\n\noverlooking the yard and opened it. The screams had completely stopped.\n\nSo that the servitor wouldn't come in, he called out, \"It's only me!\"\n\n\"Good evening, chief clerk,\" somebody called back. \"Is there anything\n\nwrong?\" \"No, no,\" answered K., \"it's only a dog yelping in the yard.\"\n\nThere was no sound from the servitors so he added, \"You can go back to\n\nwhat you were doing.\" He did not want to become involved with a\n\nconversation with them, and so he leant out of the window. A little\n\nwhile later, when he looked out in the corridor, they had already gone.\n\nNow, K. remained at the window, he did not dare go back into the junk\n\nroom, and he did not want to go home either. The yard he looked down\n\ninto was small and rectangular, all around it were offices, all the\n\nwindows were now dark and only those at the very top caught a reflection\n\nof the moon. K. tried hard to see into the darkness of one corner of the\n\nyard, where a few handcarts had been left behind one another. He felt\n\nanguish at not having been able to prevent the flogging, but that was\n\nnot his fault, if Franz had not screamed like that--clearly it must have\n\ncaused a great deal of pain but it's important to maintain control of\n\noneself at important moments--if Franz had not screamed then it was at\n\nleast highly probable that K. would have been able to dissuade the\n\nwhip-man. If all the junior officers were contemptible why would the\n\nwhip-man, whose position was the most inhumane of all, be any exception,\n\nand K. had noticed very clearly how his eyes had lit up when he saw the\n\nbanknotes, he had obviously only seemed serious about the flogging to\n\nraise the level of the bribe a little. And K. had not been ungenerous,\n\nhe really had wanted to get the policemen freed; if he really had now\n\nbegun to do something against the degeneracy of the court then it was a\n\nmatter of course that he would have to do something here as well. But of\n\ncourse, it became impossible for him to do anything as soon as Franz\n\nstarted screaming. K. could not possibly have let the junior bank staff,\n\nand perhaps even all sorts of other people, come along and catch him by\n\nsurprise as he haggled with those people in the junk room. Nobody could\n\nreally expect that sort of sacrifice of him. If that had been his\n\nintention then it would almost have been easier, K. would have taken\n\nhis own clothes off and offered himself to the whip-man in the\n\npolicemen's place. The whip-man would certainly not have accepted this\n\nsubstitution anyway, as in that way he would have seriously violated his\n\nduty without gaining any benefit. He would most likely have violated his\n\nduty twice over, as court employees were probably under orders not to\n\ncause any harm to K. while he was facing charges, although there may\n\nhave been special conditions in force here. However things stood, K. was\n\nable to do no more than throw the door shut, even though that would\n\nstill do nothing to remove all the dangers he faced. It was regrettable\n\nthat he had given Franz a shove, and it could only be excused by the\n\nheat of the moment.\n\n\n\nIn the distance, he heard the steps of the servitors; he did not want\n\nthem to be too aware of his presence, so he closed the window and\n\nwalked towards the main staircase. At the door of the junk room he\n\nstopped and listened for a little while. All was silent. The two\n\npolicemen were entirely at the whip-man's mercy; he could have beaten\n\nthem to death. K. reached his hand out for the door handle but drew it\n\nsuddenly back. He was no longer in any position to help anyone, and the\n\nservitors would soon be back; he did, though, promise himself that he\n\nwould raise the matter again with somebody and see that, as far as it\n\nwas in his power, those who really were guilty, the high officials whom\n\nnobody had so far dared point out to him, received their due punishment.\n\nAs he went down the main stairway at the front of the bank, he looked\n\ncarefully round at everyone who was passing, but there was no girl to be\n\nseen who might have been waiting for somebody, not even within some\n\ndistance from the bank. Franz's claim that his bride was waiting for him\n\nwas thus shown to be a lie, albeit one that was forgivable and intended\n\nonly to elicit more sympathy.\n\n\n\nThe policemen were still on K.'s mind all through the following day; he\n\nwas unable to concentrate on his work and had to stay in his office a\n\nlittle longer than the previous day so that he could finish it. On the\n\nway home, as he passed by the junk room again, he opened its door as if\n\nthat had been his habit. Instead of the darkness he expected, he saw\n\neverything unchanged from the previous evening, and did not know how he\n\nshould respond. Everything was exactly the same as he had seen it when\n\nhe had opened the door the previous evening. The forms and bottles of\n\nink just inside the doorway, the whip-man with his cane, the two\n\npolicemen, still undressed, the candle on the shelf, and the two\n\npolicemen began to wail and call out \"Mr. K.!\" K. slammed the door\n\nimmediately shut, and even thumped on it with his fists as if that\n\nwould shut it all the firmer. Almost in tears, he ran to the servitors\n\nworking quietly at the copying machine. \"Go and get that junk room\n\ncleared out!\" he shouted, and, in amazement, they stopped what they were\n\ndoing. \"It should have been done long ago, we're sinking in dirt!\" They\n\nwould be able to do the job the next day, K. nodded, it was too late in\n\nthe evening to make them do it there and then as he had originally\n\nintended. He sat down briefly in order to keep them near him for a\n\nlittle longer, looked through a few of the copies to give the impression\n\nthat he was checking them and then, as he saw that they would not dare\n\nto leave at the same time as himself, went home tired and with his mind\n\nnumb.",
    "word_count": 2698
  }
]