Page 180 - the-trial

painter didn’t answer she added, “Please don’t paint him,
he’s an ‘orrible bloke.” There followed an incomprehensible,
interwoven babble of shouts and replies and calls of agree-
ment. The painter leapt over to the door, opened it very
slightly the girls’ clasped hands could be seen stretching
through the crack as if they wanted something and said, “If
you’re not quiet I’ll throw you all down the stairs. Sit down
here on the steps and be quiet.” They probably did not obey
him immediately, so that he had to command, “Down on
the steps!” Only then it became quiet.
“I’m sorry about that,” said the painter as he returned
to K. K. had hardly turned towards the door, he had left
it completely up to the painter whether and how he would
place him under his protection if he wanted to. Even now,
he made hardly any movement as the painter bent over him
and, whispering into his ear in order not to be heard out-
side, said, “These girls belong to the court as well.” “How’s
that?” asked K., as he leant his head to one side and looked
at the painter. But the painter sat back down on his chair
and, half in jest, half in explanation, “Well, everything
belongs to the court.” “That is something I had never no-
ticed until now,” said K. curtly, this general comment of the
painter’s made his comment about the girls far less disturb-
ing. Nonetheless, K. looked for a while at the door, behind
which the girls were now sitting quietly on the steps. Ex-
cept, that one of them had pushed a drinking straw through
a crack between the planks and was moving it slowly up and
down. “You still don’t seem to have much general idea of
what the court’s about”, said the painter, who had stretched

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