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it to harm K., he would show neither comradeship nor hu-
maneness. And what about the director? It was true that he
was well disposed towards K., and as soon as he heard about
the trial he would probably try to do everything he could to
make it easier for him, but he would certainly not devote
himself to it. K. at one time had provided the counter-bal-
ance to what the deputy director said but the director was
now coming more and more under his influence, and the
deputy director would also exploit the weakened condition
of the director to strengthen his own power. So what could
K. hope for? Maybe considerations of this sort weakened his
power of resistance, but it was still necessary not to deceive
oneself and to see everything as clearly as it could be seen
at that moment.
For no particular reason, just to avoiding returning to
his desk for a while, he opened the window. It was diffi-
cult to open and he had to turn the handle with both his
hands. Then, through the whole height and breadth of the
window, the mixture of fog and smoke was drawn into the
room, filling it with a slight smell of burning. A few flakes
of snow were blown in with it. “It’s a horrible autumn,” said
the manufacturer, who had come into the room unnoticed
after seeing the deputy director and now stood behind K.
K. nodded and looked uneasily at the manufacturer’s brief-
case, from which he would now probably take the papers
and inform K. of the result of his negotiations with the
deputy director. However, the manufacturer saw where K.
was looking, knocked on his briefcase and without opening
it said, “You’ll be wanting to hear how things turned out.

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