Page 115 - the-trial

that he had not wanted to talk openly in front of those peo-
ple. “Quite right,” said his uncle, “but now start talking.”
With his head to one side, and smoking his cigar in short,
impatient draughts, he listened. “First of all, Uncle,” said K.,
“it’s not a trial like you’d have in a normal courtroom.” “So
much the worse,” said his uncle. “How’s that?” asked K.,
looking at him. “What I mean is, that’s for the worse,” he
repeated. They were standing on the front steps of the bank;
as the doorkeeper seemed to be listening to what they were
saying K. drew his uncle down further, where they were ab-
sorbed into the bustle of the street. His uncle took K.’s arm
and stopped asking questions with such urgency about the
trial, they walked on for a while in silence. “But how did all
this come about?” he eventually asked, stopping abruptly
enough to startle the people walking behind, who had to
avoid walking into him. “Things like this don’t come all of a
sudden, they start developing a long time beforehand, there
must have been warning signs of it, why didn’t you write to
me? You know I’d do anything for you, to some extent I am
still your guardian, and until today that’s something I was
proud of. I’ll still help you, of course I will, only now, now
that the trial is already underway, it makes it very difficult.
But whatever; the best thing now is for you to take a short
holiday staying with us in the country. You’ve lost weight, I
can see that now. The country life will give you strength,
that will be good, there’s bound to be a lot of hard work
ahead of you. But besides that it’ll be a way of getting you
away from the court, to some extent. Here they’ve got every
means of showing the powers at their disposal and they’re

11 The Trial