Page 149 - the-trial

pretending to watch the lawyer as he bent greedily over his
cup, poured the tea in and drank and secretly let K. hold her
hand. There was always complete silence. The lawyer drank.
K. squeezed Leni’s hand and Leni would sometimes dare
to gently stroke K.’s hair. “Still here, are you?” the lawyer
would ask when he was ready. “I wanted to take the dishes
away,” said Leni, they would give each other’s hands a final
squeeze, the lawyer would wipe his mouth and then start
talking at K. again with renewed energy.
Was the lawyer trying to comfort K. or to confuse him?
K. could not tell, but it seemed clear to him that his defence
was not in good hands. Maybe everything the lawyer said
was quite right, even though he obviously wanted to make
himself as conspicuous as possible and probably had nev-
er even taken on a case as important as he said K.’s was.
But it was still suspicious how he continually mentioned his
personal contacts with the civil servants. Were they to be
exploited solely for K.’s benefit? The lawyer never forgot to
mention that they were dealing only with junior officials,
which meant officials who were dependent on others, and
the direction taken in each trial could be important for
their own furtherment. Could it be that they were making
use of the lawyer to turn trials in a certain direction, which
would, of course, always be at the cost of the defendant? It
certain did not mean that they would do that in every trial,
that was not likely at all, and there were probably also tri-
als where they gave the lawyer advantages and all the room
he needed to turn it in the direction he wanted, as it would
also be to their advantage to keep his reputation intact. If

1 The Trial