Page 36 - the-metamorphosis

prisonment. He had thought that nothing at all was left over
for his father from that business; at least his father had told
him nothing to the contradict that view, and Gregor in any
case hadn’t asked him about it. At the time Gregor’s only
concern had been to devote everything he had in order to
allow his family to forget as quickly as possible the busi-
ness misfortune which had brought them all into a state of
complete hopelessness. And so at that point he’d started
to work with a special intensity and from an assistant had
become, almost overnight, a traveling salesman, who natu-
rally had entirely different possibilities for earning money
and whose successes at work at once were converted into
the form of cash commissions, which could be set out on
the table at home in front of his astonished and delighted
family. Those had been beautiful days, and they had never
come back afterwards, at least not with the same splendour,
in spite of the fact that Gregor later earned so much money
that he was in a position to bear the expenses of the entire
family, expenses which he, in fact, did bear. They had be-
come quite accustomed to it, both the family and Gregor
as well. They took the money with thanks, and he happily
surrendered it, but the special warmth was no longer pres-
ent. Only the sister had remained still close to Gregor, and
it was his secret plan to send her (in contrast to Gregor she
loved music very much and knew how to play the violin
charmingly) next year to the conservatory, regardless of the
great expense which that must necessitate and which would
be made up in other ways. Now and then during Gregor’s
short stays in the city the conservatory was mentioned in