Page 30 - the-metamorphosis
P. 30

by the living room door, determined to bring in the hesitant
         visitor somehow or other or at least to find out who it might
         be. But now the door was not opened any more, and Gregor
         waited in vain. Earlier, when the door had been barred, they
         had all wanted to come in to him; now, when he had opened
         one door and when the others had obviously been opened
         during the day, no one came any more, and the keys were
         stuck in the locks on the outside.
            The light in the living room was turned off only late at
         night, and now it was easy to establish that his parents and
         his sister had stayed awake all this time, for one could hear
         clearly as all three moved away on tiptoe. Now it was cer-
         tain that no one would come into Gregor any more until
         the morning. Thus, he had a long time to think undisturbed
         about how he should reorganize his life from scratch. But
         the high, open room, in which he was compelled to lie flat
         on the floor, made him anxious, without his being able to
         figure out the reason, for he had lived in the room for five
         years. With a half unconscious turn and not without a slight
         shame he scurried under the couch, where, in spite of the
         fact that his back was a little cramped and he could no lon-
         ger lift up his head, he felt very comfortable and was sorry
         only that his body was too wide to fit completely under it.
            There he remained the entire night, which he spent partly
         in a state of semi-sleep, out of which his hunger constantly
         woke him with a start, but partly in a state of worry and
         murky hopes, which all led to the conclusion that for the
         time being he would have to keep calm and with patience
         and  the  greatest  consideration  for  his  family  tolerate  the
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