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been waiting there. “Nothing has happened,” she whispered
to him, “I just threw a plate against the wall to get you out of
there.” “I was thinking about you, as well,” replied K. uneas-
ily. “So much the better,” said the carer. “Come with me”. A
few steps along, they came to a frosted glass door which the
carer opened for him. “Come in here,” she said. It was clear-
ly the lawyer’s office, fitted out with old, heavy furniture, as
far as could be seen in the moonlight which now illuminat-
ed just a small, rectangular section of the floor by each of
the three big windows. “This way,” said the carer, pointing
to a dark trunk with a carved, wooden backrest. When he
had sat down, K. continued to look round the room, it was a
large room with a high ceiling, the clients of this lawyer for
the poor must have felt quite lost in it. K. thought he could
see the little steps with which visitors would approach the
massive desk. But then he forgot about all of this and had
eyes only for the carer who sat very close beside him, almost
pressing him against the armrest. “I did think,” she said
“you would come out here to me by yourself with me having
to call you first. It was odd. First you stare at me as soon as
you come in, and then you keep me waiting. And you ought
to call me Leni, too,” she added quickly and suddenly, as if
no moment of this conversation should be lost. “Gladly,”
said K. “But as for its being odd, Leni, that’s easy to explain.
Firstly, I had to listen to what the old men were saying and
couldn’t leave without a good reason, but secondly I’m not a
bold person, if anything I’m quite shy, and you, Leni, you
didn’t really look like you could be won over in one stroke,
either.” “That’s not it,” said Leni, laying one arm on the arm-

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