Page 29 - the-metamorphosis

appointment, not just because it was difficult for him to eat
on account of his delicate left side (he could eat only if his
entire panting body worked in a coordinated way), but also
because the milk, which otherwise was his favorite drink
and which his sister had certainly placed there for that rea-
son, did not appeal to him at all. He turned away from the
bowl almost with aversion and crept back into the middle
of the room.
In the living room, as Gregor saw through the crack in
the door, the gas was lit, but where on other occasions at this
time of day the father was accustomed to read the afternoon
newspaper in a loud voice to his mother and sometimes also
to his sister, at the moment not a sound was audible. Now,
perhaps this reading aloud, about which his sister always
spoken and written to him, had recently fallen out of their
general routine. But it was so still all around, in spite of the
fact that the apartment was certainly not empty. ‘What a
quiet life the family leads’, said Gregor to himself and, as he
stared fixedly out in front of him into the darkness, he felt
a great pride that he had been able to provide such a life in
a beautiful apartment like this for his parents and his sister.
But how would things go if now all tranquillity, all prosper-
ity, all contentment should come to a horrible end? In order
not to lose himself in such thoughts, Gregor preferred to set
himself moving and crawled up and down in his room.
Once during the long evening one side door and then the
other door was opened just a tiny crack and quickly closed
again. Someone presumably needed to come in but had then
thought better of it. Gregor immediately took up a position

The Metamorphosis