wanted in some way to enter into the thoughts of the warders and twist them to his own
advantage or else try to acclimatize himself to them. But the warder merely said in a
discouraging voice: “You’ll come up against it yet.” Franz interrupted: “See, Willem, he
admits that he doesn’t know the Law and yet he claims he’s innocent.” “You’re quite right,
but you’ll never make a man like that see reason,” replied the other. K. gave no further
answer; “Must I,” he thought, “let myself be confused still worse by the gabble of those
wretched hirelings? — they admit themselves that’s all they are. They’re talking of things,
in any case, which they don’t understand. Plain stupidity is the only thing that can give
them such assurance. A few words with a man on my own level of intelligence would
make everything far clearer than hours of talk with these two.” He walked up and down a
few times in the free part of the room; at the other side of the street he could still see the
old woman, who had now dragged to the window an even older man, whom she was
holding round the waist. K. felt he must put an end to this farce. “Take me to your superior
officer,” he said. “When he orders me, not before,” retorted the warder called Willem.
“And now I advise you,” lie went on, “to go to your room, stay quietly there, and wait for
what may be decided about you. Our advice to you is not to let yourself be distracted by
vain thoughts, but to collect yourself, for great demands will be made upon you. You
haven’t treated us as our kind advances to you deserved, you have forgotten that we, no
matter who we may be, are at least free men compared to you; that is no small advantage.
All the same, we are prepared, if you have any money, to bring you a little breakfast from
the coffee-house across the street.”
Without replying to this offer K. remained standing where he was for a moment. If he
were to open the door of the next room or even the door leading to the hail, perhaps the
two of them would not dare to hinder him, perhaps that would be the simplest solution of
the whole business, to bring it to a head. But perhaps they might seize him after all, and if
he were once down, all the superiority would be lost which in a certain sense he still
retained. Accordingly, instead of a quick solution he chose that certainty which the natural
course of things would be bound to bring, and went back to his room without another word
having been said by him or by the warders.
He flung himself on his bed and took from the washstand a fine apple which he had
laid out the night before for his breakfast. Now it was all the breakfast he would have, but
in any case, as the first few bites assured him, much better than the breakfast from the
filthy night café, would have been, which the grace of his warders might have secured him.
He felt fit and confident, he would miss his work in the Bank that morning, it was true, but
that would be easily overlooked, considering the comparatively high post he held there.
Should he give the real reason for his absence? He considered doing so. If they did not
believe him, which in the circumstances would be understandable, he could produce Frau
Grubach as a witness, or even the two odd creatures over the way, who were now probably
meandering back again to the window opposite his room. K. warn surprised, at least he was surprised considering the warders’ point of view, that they had sent him to his room
and left him alone there, where he had abundant opportunities to take his life. Though at
the same time he also asked himself, looking at it from his own point of view, what
possible ground he could have to do so. Because two warders were sitting next door and
had intercepted his breakfast? To take his life would be such a senseless act that, even if he