especially during the night. But at that time I was looking for immediate results, and so I
went to the pettifogging lawyers.”
“How close you’ve got!” cried Leni, who had come back with the soup bowl and was
standing in the door- way. They were indeed sitting so close to each other that they must
have bumped their heads together at the slightest movement; Block, who was not only a
small man but stooped forward as he sat, spoke so low that K. was forced to bend down to
hear every word he said. “Give us a moment or two,” cried K., warning Leni off; the hand
which he still kept on the tradesman’s hand twitched with irritation. “He wanted me to tell
him about my case,” the tradesman said to Leni. “Well, go on telling him,” said she. Her
tone in speaking to Block was kindly but a little condescending. That annoyed K.; the man,
after all, as he had discovered, possessed a certain value, he had experiences and knew
how to communicate them. Leni at least probably misjudged him. To K.’s further
annoyance Leni removed the candle, which he had been grasping all this time, wiped his
hand with her apron, and knelt down to scratch off some tallow which had dripped on his
trousers. “You were going to tell me about pettifogging lawyers,” said K., pushing Leni’s
hand away without comment. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, giving K. a
small slap and resuming her task. “Yes, the pettifogging lawyers,” said Block, passing his
hand over his brow as if in reflection. K. wanted to help him out and added: “You were
looking for immediate results and so you went to the pettifogging lawyers.” “That’s right,”
said Block, but he did not continue. “Perhaps he doesn’t want to talk of it before Leni,”
thought K., suppressing his impatience to hear the rest of the story at once and not urging
the man any more.
“Did you announce me?” he asked Leni instead. “Of course,” she said, “and the
lawyer’s waiting for you. Leave Block alone now, you can talk to him later, for he’s staying
here.” K. still hesitated. “Are you staying here?” he asked the tradesman; he wanted the
man to speak for himself, he disliked the way Leni discussed him as if he were absent, he
was filled with obscure irritation today against Leni. And again it was Leni who did the
speaking: “He often sleeps here.” “Sleeps here?” cried K.; he had thought that the
tradesman was waiting only till the interview with the lawyer was brought to a speedy
conclusion, and that then they would go off together to discuss the whole business
thoroughly in private. “Yes,” said Leni, “everyone isn’t like you, Joseph, getting an
interview with the lawyer at any hour they choose. It doesn’t even seem to strike you as
surprising that a sick man like the lawyer should agree to see you at eleven o’clock at night.
You take all that your friends do for you far too much as a matter of course. Well, your
friends, or I at least, like doing things for you. I don’t ask for thanks and I don’t need any
thanks, except that I want you to be fond of me.” “Fond of you?” thought K., and oily after
framing the words did it occur to him: “But III am fond of her.” Yet he said, ignoring the
rest of her remarks: “He receives me because I’m his client. If I needed the help of others
even to get an interview with my lawyer, I’d have to be bowing and scraping at every turn.”
“How difficult he is today, isn’t he ?” said Leni to the tradesman. “Now it’s my turn to be treated as if I were absent,” thought K., and his irritation extended to the tradesman too
when the latter, copying Leni’s discourtesy, remarked: “But the lawyer has other reasons
for agreeing to see him. His is a much more interesting case than mine. Besides, it’s only
beginning, probably still at a hopeful stage, and so the lawyer likes handling it. You’ll see a
difference later on.” “Yes, yes,” said Leni, regarding the tradesman laughingly, “what a