arrive, he could not believe that his rejection of any more hearings had
been taken literally, and when the expected summons really had not come
by Saturday evening he took it to mean that he was expected, without
being told, to appear at the same place at the same time. So on Sunday,
he set out once more in the same direction, going without hesitation up
the steps and through the corridors; some of the people remembered him
and greeted him from their doorways, but he no longer needed to ask
anyone the way and soon arrived at the right door. It was opened as soon
as he knocked and, paying no attention to the woman he had seen last
time who was standing at the doorway, he was about to go straight into
the adjoining room when she said to him "There's no session today."
"What do you mean; no session?" he asked, unable to believe it. But the
woman persuaded him by opening the door to the next room. It was indeed
empty, and looked even more dismal empty than it had the previous
Sunday. On the podium stood the table exactly as it had been before with
a few books laying on it. "Can I have a look at those books?" asked K.,
not because he was especially curious but so that he would not have come
for nothing. "No," said the woman as she re-closed the door, "that's not
allowed. Those books belong to the examining judge." "I see," said K.,
and nodded, "those books must be law books, and that's how this court
does things, not only to try people who are innocent but even to try
them without letting them know what's going on." "I expect you're
right," said the woman, who had not understood exactly what he meant.
"I'd better go away again, then," said K. "Should I give a message to
the examining judge?" asked the woman. "Do you know him, then?" asked K.
"Of course I know him," said the woman, "my husband is the court usher."
It was only now that K. noticed that the room, which before had held
nothing but a wash-tub, had been fitted out as a living room. The woman
saw how surprised he was and said, "Yes, we're allowed to live here as
we like, only we have to clear the room out when the court's in session.
There's lots of disadvantages to my husband's job." "It's not so much
the room that surprises me," said K., looking at her crossly, "it's your
being married that shocks me." "Are you thinking about what happened
last time the court was in session, when I disturbed what you were
saying?" asked the woman. "Of course," said K., "it's in the past now
and I've nearly forgotten about it, but at the time it made me furious.
And now you tell me yourself that you are a married woman." "It wasn't
any disadvantage for you to have your speech interrupted. The way they
talked about you after you'd gone was really bad." "That could well be,"
said K., turning away, "but it does not excuse you." "There's no-one I
know who'd hold it against me," said the woman. "Him, who put his arms
around me, he's been chasing after me for a long time. I might not be
very attractive for most people, but I am for him. I've got no
protection from him, even my husband has had to get used to it; if he
wants to keep his job he's got to put up with it as that man's a student
and he'll almost certainly be very powerful later on. He's always after
me, he'd only just left when you arrived." "That fits in with everything
else," said K., "I'm not surprised." "Do you want to make things a bit
better here?" the woman asked slowly, watching him as if she were saying
something that could be as dangerous for K. as for herself. "That's what
I thought when I heard you speak, I really liked what you said. Mind
you, I only heard part of it, I missed the beginning of it and at the
end I was lying on the floor with the student--it's so horrible here,"
she said after a pause, and took hold of K.'s hand. "Do you believe you
really will be able to make things better?" K. smiled and twisted his
hand round a little in her soft hands. "It's really not my job to make
things better here, as you put it," he said, "and if you said that to
the examining judge he would laugh at you or punish you for it. I really
would not have become involved in this matter if I could have helped it,
and I would have lost no sleep worrying about how this court needs to be
made better. But because I'm told that I have been arrested--and I am
under arrest--it forces me to take some action, and to do so for my own
sake. However, if I can be of some service to you in the process I will,
of course, be glad to do so. And I will be glad to do so not only for
the sake of charity but also because you can be of some help to me."
"How could I help you, then?" said the woman. "You could, for example,
show me the books on the table there." "Yes, certainly," the woman
cried, and pulled K. along behind her as she rushed to them. The books
were old and well worn, the cover of one of them had nearly broken
through in its middle, and it was held together with a few threads.
"Everything is so dirty here," said K., shaking his head, and before he
could pick the books up the woman wiped some of the dust off with her
apron. K. took hold of the book that lay on top and threw it open, an
indecent picture appeared. A man and a woman sat naked on a sofa, the
base intent of whoever drew it was easy to see but he had been so
grossly lacking in skill that all that anyone could really make out were
the man and the woman who dominated the picture with their bodies,
sitting in overly upright postures that created a false perspective and
made it difficult for them to approach each other. K. didn't thumb
through that book any more, but just threw open the next one at its
title page, it was a novel with the title, What Grete Suffered from her
Husband, Hans. "So this is the sort of law book they study here," said
K., "this is the sort of person sitting in judgement over me." "I can
help you," said the woman, "would you like me to?" "Could you really do
that without placing yourself in danger? You did say earlier on that
your husband is wholly dependent on his superiors." "I still want to
help you," said the woman, "come over here, we've got to talk about it.
Don't say any more about what danger I'm in, I only fear danger where I
want to fear it. Come over here." She pointed to the podium and invited
him to sit down on the step with her. "You've got lovely dark eyes," she
said after they had sat down, looking up into K.'s face, "people say
I've got nice eyes too, but yours are much nicer. It was the first thing
I noticed when you first came here. That's even why I came in here, into
the assembly room, afterwards, I'd never normally do that, I'm not
really even allowed to." So that's what all this is about, thought K.,
she's offering herself to me, she's as degenerate as everything else
around here, she's had enough of the court officials, which is
understandable I suppose, and so she approaches any stranger and makes
compliments about his eyes. With that, K. stood up in silence as if he
had spoken his thoughts out loud and thus explained his action to the
woman. "I don't think you can be of any assistance to me," he said, "to
be of any real assistance you would need to be in contact with high
officials. But I'm sure you only know the lower employees, and there are
crowds of them milling about here. I'm sure you're very familiar with
them and could achieve a great deal through them, I've no doubt of that,
but the most that could be done through them would have no bearing at
all on the final outcome of the trial. You, on the other hand, would
lose some of your friends as a result, and I have no wish of that. Carry
on with these people in the same way as you have been, as it does seem
to me to be something you cannot do without. I have no regrets in saying
this as, in return for your compliment to me, I also find you rather
attractive, especially when you look at me as sadly as you are now,
although you really have no reason to do so. You belong to the people I
have to combat, and you're very comfortable among them, you're even in
love with the student, or if you don't love him you do at least prefer
him to your husband. It's easy to see that from what you've been
saying." "No!" she shouted, remained sitting where she was and grasped
K.'s hand, which he failed to pull away fast enough. "You can't go away
now, you can't go away when you've misjudged me like that! Are you
really capable of going away now? Am I really so worthless that you
won't even do me the favour of staying a little bit longer?" "You
misunderstand me," said K., sitting back down, "if it's really important
to you for me to stay here then I'll be glad to do so, I have plenty of
time, I came here thinking there would be a trial taking place. All I
meant with what I said just now was to ask you not to do anything on my
behalf in the proceedings against me. But even that is nothing for you
to worry about when you consider that there's nothing hanging on the
outcome of this trial, and that, whatever the verdict, I will just laugh
at it. And that's even presupposing it ever even reaches any conclusion,
which I very much doubt. I think it's much more likely that the court
officials will be too lazy, too forgetful, or even too fearful ever to
continue with these proceedings and that they will soon be abandoned if
they haven't been abandoned already. It's even possible that they will
pretend to be carrying on with the trial in the hope of receiving a
large bribe, although I can tell you now that that will be quite in vain
as I pay bribes to no-one. Perhaps one favour you could do me would be
to tell the examining judge, or anyone else who likes to spread
important news, that I will never be induced to pay any sort of bribe
through any stratagem of theirs--and I'm sure they have many stratagems
at their disposal. There is no prospect of that, you can tell them that
quite openly. And what's more, I expect they have already noticed
themselves, or even if they haven't, this affair is really not so
important to me as they think. Those gentlemen would only save some work
for themselves, or at least some unpleasantness for me, which, however,
I am glad to endure if I know that each piece of unpleasantness for me
is a blow against them. And I will make quite sure it is a blow against
them. Do you actually know the judge?" "Course I do," said the woman,
"he was the first one I thought of when I offered to help you. I didn't
know he's only a minor official, but if you say so it must be true. Mind
you, I still think the report he gives to his superiors must have some
influence. And he writes so many reports. You say these officials are
lazy, but they're certainly not all lazy, especially this examining
judge, he writes ever such a lot. Last Sunday, for instance, that
session went on till the evening. Everyone had gone, but the examining
judge, he stayed in the hall, I had to bring him a lamp in, all I had
was a little kitchen lamp but he was very satisfied with it and started
to write straight away. Meantime my husband arrived, he always has the
day off on Sundays, we got the furniture back in and got our room sorted
out and then a few of the neighbours came, we sat and talked for a bit
by a candle, in short, we forgot all about the examining judge and went
to bed. All of a sudden in the night, it must have been quite late in
the night, I wakes up, next to the bed, there's the examining judge
shading the lamp with his hand so that there's no light from it falls on
my husband, he didn't need to be as careful as that, the way my husband
sleeps the light wouldn't have woken him up anyway. I was quite shocked
and nearly screamed, but the judge was very friendly, warned me I should
be careful, he whispered to me he's been writing all this time, and now
he's brought me the lamp back, and he'll never forget how I looked when
he found me there asleep. What I mean, with all this, I just wanted to
tell you how the examining judge really does write lots of reports,
especially about you as questioning you was definitely one of the main
things on the agenda that Sunday. If he writes reports as long as that
they must be of some importance. And besides all that, you can see from
what happened that the examining judge is after me, and it's right now,
when he's first begun to notice me, that I can have a lot of influence
on him. And I've got other proof I mean a lot to him, too. Yesterday, he
sent that student to me, the one he really trusts and who he works with,
he sent him with a present for me, silk stockings. He said it was
because I clear up in the courtroom but that's only a pretence, that
job's no more than what I'm supposed to do, it's what my husband gets
paid for. Nice stockings, they are, look,"--she stretched out her leg,
drew her skirt up to her knee and looked, herself, at the
stocking--"they are nice stockings, but they're too good for me,
really."
She suddenly interrupted herself and lay her hand on K.'s as if she
wanted to calm him down, and whispered, "Be quiet, Berthold is watching
us." K. slowly looked up. In the doorway to the courtroom stood a young
man, he was short, his legs were not quite straight, and he continually
moved his finger round in a short, thin, red beard with which he hoped
to make himself look dignified. K. looked at him with some curiosity, he
was the first student he had ever met of the unfamiliar discipline of
jurisprudence, face to face at least, a man who would even most likely
attain high office one day. The student, in contrast, seemed to take no
notice of K. at all, he merely withdrew his finger from his beard long
enough to beckon to the woman and went over to the window, the woman
leant over to K. and whispered, "Don't be cross with me, please don't,
and please don't think ill of me either, I've got to go to him now, to
this horrible man, just look at his bent legs. But I'll come straight
back and then I'll go with you if you'll take me, I'll go wherever you
want, you can do whatever you like with me, I'll be happy if I can be
away from here for as long as possible, it'd be best if I could get away
from here for good." She stroked K.'s hand once more, jumped up and ran
over to the window. Before he realised it, K. grasped for her hand but
failed to catch it. He really was attracted to the woman, and even after
thinking hard about it could find no good reason why he should not give
in to her allure. It briefly crossed his mind that the woman meant to
entrap him on behalf of the court, but that was an objection he had no
difficulty in fending off. In what way could she entrap him? Was he not
still free, so free that he could crush the entire court whenever he
wanted, at least where it concerned him? Could he not have that much
confidence in himself? And her offer of help sounded sincere, and maybe
it wasn't quite worthless. And maybe there was no better revenge against
the examining judge and his cronies than to take this woman from him and
have her for himself. Maybe then, after much hard work writing dishonest
reports about K., the judge would go to the woman's bed late one night
and find it empty. And it would be empty because she belonged to K.,
because this woman at the window, this lush, supple, warm body in its
sombre clothes of rough, heavy material belonged to him, totally to him
and to him alone. Once he had settled his thoughts towards the woman in
this way, he began to find the quiet conversation at the window was
taking too long, he rapped on the podium with his knuckles, and then
even with his fist. The student briefly looked away from the woman to
glance at K. over his shoulder but did allow himself to be disturbed, in
fact he even pressed himself close to the woman and put his arms around
her. She dropped her head down low as if listening to him carefully, as
she did so he kissed her right on the neck, hardly even interrupting
what he was saying. K. saw this as confirmation of the tyranny the
student held over the woman and which she had already complained about,
he stood up and walked up and down the room. Glancing sideways at the
student, he wondered what would be the quickest possible way to get rid
of him, and so it was not unwelcome to him when the student, clearly
disturbed by K.'s to-ing and fro-ing which K. had now developed into a
stamping up and down, said to him, "You don't have to stay here, you
know, if you're getting impatient. You could have gone earlier, no-one
would have missed you. In fact you should have gone, you should have
left as quickly as possible as soon as I got here." This comment could
have caused all possible rage to break out between them, but K. also
bore in mind that this was a prospective court official speaking to a
disfavoured defendant, and he might well have been taking pride in
speaking in this way. K. remained standing quite close to him and said
with a smile, "You're quite right, I am impatient, but the easiest way
to settle this impatience would be if you left us. On the other hand,
if you've come here to study--you are a student, I hear--I'll be quite
happy to leave the room to you and go away with the woman. I'm sure
you'll still have a lot of study to do before you're made into a judge.
It's true that I'm still not all that familiar with your branch of
jurisprudence but I take it it involves a lot more than speaking
roughly--and I see you have no shame in doing that extremely well." "He
shouldn't have been allowed to move about so freely," said the student,
as if he wanted to give the woman an explanation for K.'s insults, "that
was a mistake. I've told the examining judge so. He should at least have
been detained in his room between hearings. Sometimes it's impossible to
understand what the judge thinks he's doing." "You're wasting your
breath," said K., then he reached his hand out towards the woman and
said, "come with me." "So that's it," said the student, "oh no, you're
not going to get her," and with a strength you would not have expected
from him, he glanced tenderly at her, lifted her up on one arm and, his
back bent under the weight, ran with her to the door. In this way he
showed, unmistakably, that he was to some extent afraid of K., but he
nonetheless dared to provoke him still further by stroking and squeezing
the woman's arm with his free hand. K. ran the few steps up to him, but
when he had reached him and was about to take hold of him and, if
necessary, throttle him, the woman said, "It's no good, it's the
examining judge who's sent for me, I daren't go with you, this little
bastard ..." and here she ran her hand over the student's face, "this
little bastard won't let me." "And you don't want to be set free!"
shouted K., laying his hand on the student's shoulder, who then snapped
at it with his teeth. "No!" shouted the woman, pushing K. away with both
hands, "no, no don't do that, what d'you think you're doing? That'd be
the end of me. Let go of him, please just let go of him. He's only
carrying out the judge's orders, he's carrying me to him." "Let him take
you then, and I want to see nothing more of you," said K., enraged by
his disappointment and giving the student a thump in the back so that he
briefly stumbled and then, glad that he had not fallen, immediately
jumped up all the higher with his burden. K. followed them slowly. He
realised that this was the first unambiguous setback he had suffered
from these people. It was of course nothing to worry about, he accepted
the setback only because he was looking for a fight. If he stayed at
home and carried on with his normal life he would be a thousand times
superior to these people and could get any of them out of his way just
with a kick. And he imagined the most laughable scene possible as an
example of this, if this contemptible student, this inflated child, this
knock-kneed redbeard, if he were kneeling at Elsa's bed wringing his
hands and begging for forgiveness. K. so enjoyed imagining this scene
that he decided to take the student along to Elsa with him if ever he
should get the opportunity.
K. was curious to see where the woman would be taken and he hurried over
to the door, the student was not likely to carry her through the streets
on his arm. It turned out that the journey was far shorter. Directly
opposite the flat there was a narrow flight of wooden steps which
probably led up to the attic, they turned as they went so that it was
not possible to see where they ended. The student carried the woman up
these steps, and after the exertions of running with her he was soon
groaning and moving very slowly. The woman waved down at K. and by
raising and lowering her shoulders she tried to show that she was an
innocent party in this abduction, although the gesture did not show a
lot of regret. K. watched her without expression like a stranger, he
wanted to show neither that he was disappointed nor that he would easily
get over his disappointment.
The two of them had disappeared, but K. remained standing in the
doorway. He had to accept that the woman had not only cheated him but
that she had also lied to him when she said she was being taken to the
examining judge. The examining judge certainly wouldn't be sitting and
waiting in the attic. The wooden stairs would explain nothing to him
however long he stared at them. Then K. noticed a small piece of paper
next to them, went across to it and read, in a childish and unpractised
hand, "Entrance to the Court Offices". Were the court offices here, in
the attic of this tenement, then? If that was how they were
accommodated it did not attract much respect, and it was some comfort
for the accused to realise how little money this court had at its
disposal if it had to locate its offices in a place where the tenants of
the building, who were themselves among the poorest of people, would
throw their unneeded junk. On the other hand, it was possible that the
officials had enough money but that they squandered it on themselves
rather than use it for the court's purposes. Going by K.'s experience of
them so far, that even seemed probable, except that if the court were
allowed to decay in that way it would not just humiliate the accused but
also give him more encouragement than if the court were simply in a
state of poverty. K. also now understood that the court was ashamed to
summon those it accused to the attic of this building for the initial
hearing, and why it preferred to impose upon them in their own homes.
What a position it was that K. found himself in, compared with the judge
sitting up in the attic! K., at the bank, had a big office with an
ante-room, and had an enormous window through which he could look down
at the activity in the square. It was true, though, that he had no
secondary income from bribes and fraud, and he couldn't tell a servant
to bring him a woman up to the office on his arm. K., however, was quite
willing to do without such things, in this life at least. K. was still
looking at the notice when a man came up the stairs, looked through the
open door into the living room where it was also possible to see the
courtroom, and finally asked K. whether he had just seen a woman there.
"You're the court usher, aren't you?" asked K. "That's right," said the
man, "oh, yes, you're defendant K., I recognise you now as well. Nice to
see you here." And he offered K. his hand, which was far from what K.
had expected. And when K. said nothing, he added, "There's no court
session planned for today, though." "I know that," said K. as he looked
at the usher's civilian coat which, beside its ordinary buttons,
displayed two gilded ones as the only sign of his office and seemed to
have been taken from an old army officer's coat. "I was speaking with
your wife a little while ago. She is no longer here. The student has
carried her off to the examining judge." "Listen to this," said the
usher, "they're always carrying her away from me. It's Sunday today, and
it's not part of my job to do any work today, but they send me off with
some message which isn't even necessary just to get me away from here.
What they do is they send me off not too far away so that I can still
hope to get back on time if I really hurry. So off I go running as fast
as I can, shout the message through the crack in the door of the office
I've been sent to, so out of breath they'll hardly be able to understand
it, run back here again, but the student's been even faster than I
have--well he's got less far to go, he's only got to run down the steps.
If I wasn't so dependent on them I'd have squashed the student against
the wall here a long time ago. Right here, next to the sign. I'm always
dreaming of doing that. Just here, just above the floor, that's where
he's crushed onto the wall, his arms stretched out, his fingers spread
apart, his crooked legs twisted round into a circle and blood squirted
out all around him. It's only ever been a dream so far, though." "Is
there nothing else you do?" asked K. with a smile. "Nothing that I know
of," said the usher. "And it's going to get even worse now, up till now
he's only been carrying her off for himself, now he's started carrying
her off for the judge and all, just like I'd always said he would."
"Does your wife, then, not share some of the responsibility?" asked K.
He had to force himself as he asked this question, as he, too, felt so
jealous now. "Course she does," said the usher, "it's more her fault
than theirs. It was her who attached herself to him. All he did, he just
chases after any woman. There's five flats in this block alone where
he's been thrown out after working his way in there. And my wife is the
best looking woman in the whole building, but it's me who's not even
allowed to defend himself." "If that's how things are, then there's
nothing that can be done," said K. "Well why not?" asked the usher.
"He's a coward that student, if he wants to lay a finger on my wife all
you'd have to do is give him such a good hiding he'd never dare do it
again. But I'm not allowed to do that, and nobody else is going to do me
the favour as they're all afraid of his power. The only one who could do
it is a man like you." "What, how could I do it?" asked K. in
astonishment. "Well you're facing a charge, aren't you," said the usher.
"Yes, but that's all the more reason for me to be afraid. Even if he has
no influence on the outcome of the trial he probably has some on the
initial examination." "Yes, exactly," said the usher, as if K.'s view
had been just as correct as his own. "Only we don't usually get any
trials heard here with no hope at all." "I am not of the same opinion,"
said K., "although that ought not to prevent me from dealing with the
student if the opportunity arises." "I would be very grateful to you,"
said the usher of the court, somewhat formally, not really seeming to
believe that his highest wish could be fulfilled. "Perhaps," continued
K., "perhaps there are some other officials of yours here, perhaps all
of them, who would deserve the same." "Oh yes, yes," said the usher, as
if this was a matter of course. Then he looked at K. trustingly which,
despite all his friendliness, he had not done until then, and added,
"they're always rebelling." But the conversation seemed to have become a
little uncomfortable for him, as he broke it off by saying, "now I have
to report to the office. Would you like to come with me?" "There's
nothing for me to do there," said K. "You'd be able to have a look at
it. No-one will take any notice of you." "Is it worth seeing then?"
asked K. hesitatingly, although he felt very keen to go with him.
"Well," said the usher, "I thought you'd be interested in it." "Alright
then," said K. finally, "I'll come with you." And, quicker than the
usher himself, he ran up the steps.