the lawyer in turn the Clerk of the Court, and one might think you had every reason to give
me at least some support. Instead of which you absent yourself. You were away so long
that there was no concealing it; of course the two gentlemen, being men of the world,
didn’t talk about it, they spared my feelings, but finally even they could no longer ignore it, and as they couldn’t mention it they said nothing at all. We sat there for minutes on end in
complete silence, listening for you to come back at last. And all in vain. Finally the Chief
Clerk of the Court, who had stayed much longer than he intended, got up and said good
night, evidently very sorry for me without being able to help me, his kindness was really
extraordinary, he stood waiting for a while longer at the door before he left. And I was
glad when he went, let me tell you; by that time I felt hardly able to breathe. And the poor
sick lawyer felt it even more, the good man couldn’t utter a word as I took leave of him. In
all probability you have helped to bring about his complete collapse and so hastened the
death of a man on whose good offices you are dependent. And you leave me, your uncle,
to wait here in the rain for hours and worry myself sick, just feel, I’m wet through and
through!” Chapter 7
Lawyer / Manufacturer / Painter
ONE winter morning — snow was falling outside the window in a foggy dimness — K. was
sitting in his office, already exhausted in spite of the early hour. To save his face before his
subordinates at least, he had given his clerk instructions to admit no one, on the plea that
he was occupied with an important piece of work. But instead of working he twisted in his
chair, idly rearranged the things lying on his writing-table, and then, without being aware
of it, let his outstretched arm rest on the table and went on sitting motionless with bowed
head.
The thought of his case never left him now. He had often considered whether it would
not be better to draw up a written defense and hand it in to the Court. In this defense he
would give a short account of his life, and when he came to an event of any importance
explain for what reasons he had acted as he did, intimate whether he approved or
condemned his way of action in retrospect, and adduce grounds for the condemnation or
approval. The advantages of such a written defense, as compared with the mere advocacy
of a lawyer who himself was not impeccable, were undoubted. K. had no idea what the
lawyer was doing about the case; at any rate it did not amount to much, it was more than a
month since Huld had sent for him, and at none of the previous consultations had K.
formed the impression that the man could do much for him. To begin with, he had hardly
cross-questioned him at all. And there were so many questions to put. To ask questions
was surely the main thing. K. felt that he could draw up all the necessary questions
himself. But the lawyer, instead of asking questions, either did all the talking or sat quite
dumb opposite him, bent slightly forward over his writing-table, probably because of his
hardness of hearing, stroking a strand of hair in the middle of his beard and gazing at the
carpet, perhaps at the very spot where K. had lain with Leni. Now and then he would give
K. some empty admonitions such as people hand out to children. Admonitions as useless
as they were wearisome, for which K. did not intend to pay a penny at the final reckoning.
After the lawyer thought he had humbled him sufficiently, he usually set himself to
encourage him slightly again. He had already, so he would relate, won many similar cases
either outright or partially. Cases which, though in reality not quite so difficult, perhaps, as
this one, had been outwardly still more hopeless. He had a list of these cases in a drawer of