positively deny when questioned that your intervention might have sidetracked some cases
which would have run quite well on the right lines had they been left alone. A desperate
kind of self-assurance, to be sure, yet it was the only kind available at such times. These
moods — for of course they were only moods, nothing more — afflicted lawyers more
especially when a case which they had conducted satisfactorily to the desired point was
suddenly taken out of their hands. That was beyond all doubt the worst thing that could
happen to a lawyer. Not that a client ever dismissed his lawyer from a case, such a thing
was not done, an accused man, once having briefed a lawyer, must stick to him whatever
happened. For how could he keep going by himself, once he had called in someone to help
him? So that never happened, but it did sometimes happen that the case took a turn where
the lawyer could no longer follow it. The case and the accused and everything were simply
withdrawn from the lawyer; then even the best connections with officials could no longer
achieve any result, for even they knew nothing. The case had simply reached the stage
where further assistance was ruled out, it was being conducted in remote, inaccessible
Courts, where even the accused was beyond the reach of a lawyer. Then you might come
home some day and find on your table all the countless pleas relating to the case, which
you had drawn up with such pains and such flattering hopes; they had been returned to you
because in the new stage of the trial they were not admitted as relevant; they were mere
waste paper. It did not follow that the case was lost, by no means, at least there was no
decisive evidence for such an assumption; you simply knew nothing more about the case
and would never know anything more about it. Now, very luckily, such occurrences were
exceptional, and even if K.’s case were a case of that nature, it still had a long way to go
before reaching that stage. For the time being, there were abundant opportunities for legal
labor, and K. might rest assured that they would be exploited to the uttermost. The first
plea, as before mentioned, was not yet handed in, but there was no hurry; far more
important were the preliminary consultations with the relevant officials, and they had
already taken place. With varying success, as must be frankly admitted. It would be better
for the time being not to divulge details which might have a bad influence on K. by elating
or depressing him unduly, yet this much could be asserted, that certain officials had
expressed themselves very graciously and had also shown great readiness to help, while
others had expressed themselves less favorably, but in spite of that had by no means
refused their collaboration. The result on the whole was therefore very gratifying, though
one must not seek to draw any definite conclusion from that, since all preliminary
negotiations began in the same way and only in the course of further developments did it
appear whether they had real value or not. At any rate nothing was yet lost, and if they
could manage to win over the Chief Clerk of the Court in spite of all that had happened —
various moves had already been initiated toward that end — then, to use a surgeon’s
expression, this could be regarded as a clean wound and one could await further
developments with an easy mind. In such and similar harangues K.’s lawyer was inexhaustible. He reiterated them every
time K. called on him. Progress had always been made, but the nature of the progress
could never be divulged. The lawyer was always working away at the first plea, but it had
never reached a conclusion, which at the next visit turned out to be an advantage, since the
last few days would have been very inauspicious for handing it in, a fact which no one
could have foreseen. If K., as sometimes happened, wearied out by the lawyer’s volubility,
remarked that, even taking into account all the difficulties, the case seemed to be getting