spends all his days in the Courts. For example, there’s a dear friend of mine visiting me at
this very moment,” and he waved a hand toward a dark corner of the room. “Where?”
asked K., almost rudely, iii his first shock of astonishment. He looked round Uncertainly;
the light of the small candle did not nearly reach the opposite wall. And then some form or other in the dark corner actually began to stir. By the light of the candle, which his uncle
now held high above his head, K. could see an elderly gentleman sitting there at a little
table. lie must have been sitting without even drawing breath, to have remained for so long
unnoticed. Now he got up fussily, obviously displeased to have his presence made known.
With his hands, which he flapped like short wings, he seemed to be deprecating all
introductions or greetings, trying to show that the last thing he desired was to disturb the
other gentlemen, and that he only wanted to be transported again to the darkness where his
presence might be forgotten. But that privilege could no longer be his. “I may say you took
us by surprise,” said the lawyer in explanation, and he waved his hand to encourage the
gentleman to approach, which he did very slowly and glancing around him hesitantly, but
with a certain dignity. “The Chief Clerk of the Court — oh, I beg your pardon, I have not
introduced you — this is my friend Albert K., this is his nephew Joseph K., and this is the
Chief Clerk of the Court — who, to return to what I was saying, has been so good as to pay
me a visit. The value of such a visit can really be appreciated only by the initiated who
know how dreadfully the Clerk of the Court is overwhelmed with work. Yet he came to
see me all the same, we were talking here peacefully, as far as my ill health permitted, we
didn’t actually forbid Leni to admit visitors, it was true, for we expected none, but we
naturally thought that we should be left in peace, and then came your furious tattoo, Albert,
and the Clerk of the Court withdrew into the corner with his chair and his table, but now it
seems we have the chance, that is, if you care to take it, of making the discussion general,
since this case concerns us all, and so we can get together. –Please, my dear Sir,” he said
with a bow and an obsequious smile, indicating an armchair near the bed. “Unfortunately I
can only stay for a few minutes longer,” said the Chief Clerk of the Court affably, seating
himself in the chair and looking at his watch, “my duties call me. But I don’t want to miss
this opportunity of becoming acquainted with a friend of my friend here.” He bowed
slightly to K.’s uncle, who appeared very flattered to make this new acquaintance, yet,
being by nature incapable of expressing reverent feelings, requited the Clerk of the Court’s
words with a burst of embarrassed but raucous laughter. An ugly sight! K. could observe
everything calmly, for nobody paid any attention to him. The Chief Clerk of the Court,
now that he had been brought into prominence, seized the lead, as seemed to be his usual
habit. The lawyer, whose first pretense of weakness had probably been intended simply to
drive away his visitors, listened attentively, cupping his hand to his ear. K.’s uncle as
candle-bearer — he was balancing the candle on his thigh, the lawyer often glanced at it in
apprehension — had soon rid himself of his embarrassment and was now delightedly
absorbed in the Clerk of the Court’s eloquence and the delicate wavelike gestures of the
hand with which he accompanied it. K., leaning against the bedpost, was completely
ignored by the Clerk of the Court, perhaps by deliberate intention, and served merely as an
audience to the old gentleman. Besides, he could hardly follow the conversation and was
thinking first of the nurse and the rude treatment she had received from his uncle, and then
wondering if he had not seen the Clerk of the Court before, perhaps actually among the