thing to do was to tire out the 01(1 gentleman. one lawyer after another was sent rushing
upstairs to offer the greatest possible show of passive resistance and let himself be thrown
down again into the arms of ins colleagues. That lasted for about an hour, then the old
gentleman — who was exhausted in any case by his work overnight — really grew tired and
went back to his office. The lawyers down below would not believe it at first and sent one
of their number up to peep behind the door and assure himself that the place was actually
vacant. Only Then were they able to enter, and probably they did not dare even to grumble.
For although the pettiest lawyer might be to some extent capable of analyzing the state of
things in the Court, it never occurred to the lawyers that they should suggest or insist on
any improvements in the system, while — and this was very characteristic — almost every
accused man, even quite simple people among them, discovered from the earliest stages a
passion for suggesting reforms which often wasted time and energy that could have been
better employed in other directions. The only sensible thing was to adapt oneself to
existing conditions. Even if it were possible to alter a detail for the better here or there —
but it was simple madness to think of it — any benefit arising from that would profit clients
in the future only, while one’s own interests would be immeasurably injured by attracting
the attention of the ever-vengeful officials. Anything rather than that! One must lie low, no
matter how much it went against the grain, and try to understand that this great
organization remained, so to speak, in a state of delicate balance, and that if someone took
it upon himself to alter the disposition of things around him, he ran the risk of losing his
footing and falling to destruction, while the organization would simply right itself by some
compensating reaction in another part of its machinery — since everything interlocked —
and remain unchanged, unless, indeed, which was very probable, it became still more rigid,
more vigilant, severer, and more ruthless. One must really leave the lawyers to do their
work, instead of interfering with them. Reproaches were not of much use, particularly
when the offender was unable to perceive the full scope of the grounds for them; all the
same, he must say that K. had very greatly damaged his case by his discourtesy to the
Chief Clerk of the Court. That influential man could already almost be eliminated from the
list of those who might be got to do something for K. He now ignored clearly on purpose
even the slightest reference to the case. In many ways the functionaries were like children.
Often they could be so deeply offended by the merest trifle — unfortunately, K.’s behavior
could not be classed as a trifle — that they would stop speaking even to old friends, give
them the cold shoulder, and work against them in all imaginable ways. But then, suddenly,
in the most surprising fashion and without any particular reason, they would be moved to
laughter by some small jest which you only dared to make because you felt you had
nothing to lose, and then they were your friends again. In fact it was both easy and difficult
to handle them, you could hardly lay down any fixed principles for dealing with them.
Sometimes you felt astonished to think that one single ordinary lifetime sufficed to gather
all the knowledge needed for a fair degree of success in such a profession. There were dark
hours, of course, such as came to everybody, in which you thought you had achieved
nothing at all, in which it seemed to you that only the cases predestined from the start to
succeed came to a good end, which they would have reached in any event without your help, while every one of the others was doomed to fail in spite of all your maneuvers, all
your exertions, all the illusory little victories on which you plumed yourself. That was a
frame of mind, of course, in which nothing at all seemed certain, and so you could not