Block. “Well, since you’re here,” said the lawyer, “stay!” One might have fancied that
instead of granting Block his desire the lawyer had threatened to have him beaten, for the
fellow now begin to tremble in earnest. “Yesterday,” said the lawyer, “I saw my friend the
Third Judge and gradually worked the conversation round to your case. Would you like to
know what he said?” “Oh, please,” said Block. Since the lawyer made no immediate reply,
Block implored him again and seemed on the point of getting down on his knees. But K.
intervened with a shout: “What’s that you’re doing?” Leni had tried to stifle his shout and
so he gripped her other hand as well. It was no loving clasp in which he held her; she
sighed now and then and struggled to free herself. But it was Block who paid the penalty
for K.’s outburst; the lawyer shot the question at him: “Who is your lawyer?” “You are,”
said Block. “And besides me?” asked the lawyer. “No one beside you,” said Block. “Then
pay no heed to anyone else,” said the lawyer. Block took the full force of these words; he
gave K. an angry glare and shook his head violently at him. If these gestures had been
translated into speech they would have made a tirade of abuse. And this was the man with
whom K. had wished to discuss his own case in all friendliness! “I shan’t interfere again,”
said K., leaning back in his chair. “Kneel on the floor or creep on all fours if you like, I
shan’t bother.” Yet Block had some self-respect left, at least where K. was concerned, for
he advanced upon him flourishing his fists and shouting as loudly as he dared in the
lawyer’s presence: “You’re not to talk to me in that tone, it isn’t allowed. What do you
mean by insulting me? Before the lawyer, too, who admits us here, both of us, you and me,
only out of charity? You’re no better than I am, you’re an accused man too and are
involved in a case like me. If none the less you’re a gentleman as well, let me tell you I’m
as great a gentleman as you, if not a greater. And I’ll have you address me as such, yes, you
especially. For if you think you have the advantage of me because you’re allowed to sit
there at your ease and watch me creeping on all fours, as you put it, let me remind you of
the old maxim: people under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they
may be sitting in the balance without knowing it, being weighed together with their sins.”
K. said not a word, he merely stared in unwinking astonishment at this madman. What a
change had come over the fellow in the last hour! Was it his case that agitated him to such
an extent that he could not distinguish friend from foe? Did he not see that the lawyer was deliberately humiliating him, for no other purpose on this occasion than to make a display
of his power before K. and so perhaps cow K. into acquiescence as well? Yet if Block
were incapable of perceiving this, or if he were so afraid of the lawyer that he could not
allow himself to perceive it, how did it come about that he was sly enough or brave enough
to deceive the lawyer and deny that he was having recourse to other lawyers? And how
could he be so foolhardy as to attack K., knowing that K. might betray his secret? His
foolhardiness went even further, he now approached the lawyer’s bed and laid a complaint
against K. “Dr. Huld,” he said, “did you hear what this man said to me? His case is only a
few hours old compared with mine, and yet, though I have been five years involved in my
case, he takes it on himself to give me advice. He even abuses me. Knows nothing at all
and abuses me, me, who have studied as closely as my poor wits allow every precept of
duty, piety, and tradition.” “Pay no heed to anyone,” said the lawyer, “and do what seems