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his uncle for an explanation but his uncle sat on the bedside
table with the candle in his hand, a medicine bottle had
rolled off the table onto the floor, he nodded to everything
the lawyer said, agreed to everything, and now and then
looked at K. urging him to show the same compliance. May-
be K.’s uncle had already told the lawyer about the trial. But
that was impossible, everything that had happened so far
spoke against it. So he said, “I don’t understand … “ “Well,
maybe I’ve misunderstood what you’ve been saying,” said
the lawyer, just as astonished and embarrassed as K. “Per-
haps I’ve been going too fast. What was it you wanted to
speak to me about? I thought it was to do with your trial.”
“Of course it is,” said K.’s uncle, who then asked K., “So
what is it you want?” “Yes, but how is it that you know any-
thing about me and my case?” asked K. “Oh, I see,” said the
lawyer with a smile. “I am a lawyer, I move in court circles,
people talk about various different cases and the more in-
teresting ones stay in your mind, especially when they
concern the nephew of a friend. There’s nothing very re-
markable about that.” “What is it you want, then?” asked
K.’s uncle once more, “You seem so uneasy about it” “You
move in this court’s circles?” asked K. “Yes,” said the lawyer.
“You’re asking questions like a child,” said K.’s uncle. “What
circles should I move in, then, if not with members of my
own discipline?” the lawyer added. It sounded so indisput-
able that K. gave no answer at all. “But you work in the High
Court, not that court in the attic,” he had wanted to say but
could not bring himself to actually utter it. “You have to re-
alise,” the lawyer continued, in a tone as if he were

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