mean any loss to you?” “No,” said Frau Grubach, “in itself it’s quite welcome to me, I am
left with an extra room, and I can put my nephew, the Captain, there. I’ve been bothered in
case he might have disturbed you these last few days, for I had to let him occupy the living
room next door. He’s not very considerate.” “What an idea !” said K., getting up. “There’s
no question of that. You really seem to think I’m hypersensitive because I can’t stand
Fräulein Montag’s trailings to and fro — there she goes again, coming back this time.” Frau
Grubach felt quite helpless. “Shall I tell her, Herr K., to put off moving the rest of her
things until later? If you like I’ll do so at once.” “But she’s got to move into Fräulein
Bürstner room !” cried K. “Yes,” said Frau Grubach, she could not quite make out what K.
meant. “Well then,” said K., “she must surely be allowed to shift her things there.” Frau
Grubach simply nodded. Her dumb helplessness, which outwardly had the look of simple
obstinacy, exasperated K. still more. He began to walk up and down from the window to the door and back again, and by doing that he hindered Frau Grubach from being able to
slip out of the room, which she would probably have done.
K. had just reached the door again when there was a knock. It was the maid, who
announced that Fräulein Montag would like a word or two with Herr K. and that she
accordingly begged him to come to the dining room, where she was waiting for him. K.
listened pensively to the message, then he turned an almost mocking eye on the startled
Frau Grubach. His look seemed to say that he had long foreseen this invitation of Fräulein
Montag’s, and that it accorded very well with all the persecution he had had to endure that
Sunday morning from Frau Grubach’s boarders. He sent the maid back with the
information that he would come at once, then went to his wardrobe to change his coat, and
in answer to Frau Grubach, who was softly lamenting over the behavior of the importunate
Fräulein Montag, had nothing to say but to request her to remove his breakfast tray. “Why,
you’ve scarcely touched anything,” said Frau Grubach. “Oh, do take it away,” cried K., it
seemed to him as if Fräulein Montag were somehow mixed up with the food and made it
nauseating.
As he crossed the entrance hall he glanced at the closed door of Fräulein Bürstner
room. Still, he had not been invited there, but to the dining room, where he flung open the
door without knocking.
It was a very long narrow room with one large window. There was only enough space
in it to wedge two cupboards at an angle on either side of the door, the rest of the room
was completely taken up by the long dining-table, which began near the door and reached
to the very window, making it almost inaccessible. The table was already laid, and for
many people too, since on Sunday almost all the boarders had their midday dinner in the
house.
When K. entered, Fräulein Montag advanced from the window along one side of the
table to meet him. They greeted each other in silence. Then Fräulein Montag said, holding
her head very erect as usual: “I don’t know if you know who I am.” K. stared at her with
contracted brows. “Of course I do,” he said, “you’ve been staying quite a long time with
Frau Grubach, haven’t you?” “But you don’t take much interest in the boarders, I fancy,”
said Fräulein Montag. “No,” said K. “Won’t you take a seat?” asked Fräulein Montag. In
silence they pulled out two chairs at the very end of the table and sat down opposite each
other. But Fräulein Montag immediately stood up again, for she had left her little handbag
lying on the window sill and now went to fetch it; she trailed for it along the whole length
of the room. As she came back, swinging the bag lightly in her hand, she said: “I’ve been