completion of this plea was a sheer impossibility. Not because of laziness or obstructive
malice, which could only hinder Dr. Huld, but because to meet an unknown accusation, not
to mention other possible charges arising out of it, the whole of one’s life would have to be
recalled to mind, down to the smallest actions and accidents, clearly formulated and
examined from every angle. And besides how dreary such a task would be! It would do
well enough, perhaps, as an occupation for one’s second childhood in years of retirement,
when the long days needed filling up. But now, when K. should be devoting his mind
entirely to work, when every hour was hurried and crowded — for he was still in full career
and rapidly becoming a rival even to the Assistant Manager — when his evenings and
nights were all too short for the pleasures of a bachelor life, this was the time when he
must sit down to such a task! Once more his train of thought had led him into self-pity.
Almost involuntarily, simply to make an end of it, he put his finger on the button which
rang the bell in the waiting-room. While he pressed it he glanced at the clock. It was
eleven o’clock, he had wasted two hours in dreaming, a long stretch of precious time, and
he was, of course, still wearier than he had been before. Yet the time had not been quite
lost, he had come to decisions which might prove valuable. The attendants brought in
several letters and two cards from gentlemen who had been waiting for a considerable
time. They were, in fact, extremely important clients of the Bank who should on no
account have been kept waiting at all. Why had they come at such an unsuitable hour? —
and why, they might well be asking in their turn behind the door, did the assiduous K.
allow his private affairs to usurp the best time of the day? Weary of what had gone before
and wearily awaiting what was to come, K. got up to receive the first of his clients.
This was the jovial little man, a manufacturer whom K. knew well. He regretted having disturbed K. in the middle of important work and K. on his side regretted that he
had kept the manufacturer waiting for so long. But his very regret he expressed in such a
mechanical way, with such a lack of sincerity in his tone of voice, that the manufacturer
could not have helped noticing it, had he not been so engrossed by the business in hand. As
it was, he tugged papers covered with statistics out of every pocket, spread them before K.,
explained various entries, corrected a trifling error which his eye had caught even in this
hasty survey, reminded K. of a similar transaction which he had concluded with him about
a year before, mentioned casually that this time another bank was making great sacrifices
to secure the deal, and finally sat in eager silence waiting for K.’s comments. K. had
actually followed the man’s argument quite closely in its early stages — the thought of such
an important piece of business had its attractions for him too — but unfortunately not for
long; he had soon ceased to listen and merely nodded now and then as the manufacturer’s
claims waxed in enthusiasm, until in the end he forgot to show even that much interest and
confined himself to staring at the other’s bald head bent over the papers and asking himself
when the fellow would begin to realize that all his eloquence was being wasted. When the
manufacturer stopped speaking, K. actually thought for a moment that the pause was
intended to give him the chance of confessing that he was not in a fit state to attend to
business. And it was with regret that he perceived the intent look on the manufacturer’s
face, the alertness, as if prepared for every objection, which indicated that the interview
would have to continue. So he bowed his head as at a word of command and began slowly
to move his pencil point over the papers, pausing here and there to stare at some figure.