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could induce him to put his coat on, even though they were
already loudly telling each other that he was doing so. The
painter still had to interpret K.’s mood in some way, so he
said, “I expect you’ve deliberately avoided deciding between
my suggestions yet. That’s good. I would even have advised
against making a decision straight away. There’s no more
than a hair’s breadth of difference between the advantages
and disadvantages. Everything has to be carefully weighed
up. But the most important thing is you shouldn’t lose too
much time.” “I’ll come back here again soon,” said K., who
had suddenly decided to put his frock coat on, threw his
overcoat over his shoulder and hurried over to the door be-
hind which the girls now began to scream. K. thought he
could even see the screaming girls through the door. “Well,
you’ll have to keep your word,” said the painter, who had
not followed him, “otherwise I’ll to the bank to ask about it
myself.” “Will you open this door for me,” said K. pulling at
the handle which, as he noticed from the resistance, was be-
ing held tightly by the girls on the other side. “Do you want
to be bothered by the girls?” asked the painter. “It’s better if
you use the other way out,” he said, pointing to the door be-
hind the bed. K. agreed to this and jumped back to the bed.
But instead of opening that door the painter crawled under
the bed and from underneath it asked K., “Just a moment
more, would you not like to see a picture I could sell to you?”
K. did not want to be impolite, the painter really had taken
his side and promised to help him more in the future, and
because of K.’s forgetfulness there had been no mention of
any payment for the painter’s help, so K. could not turn him

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