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each other, exchanging each other’s opinions?” said K. “I’ve
kept myself completely apart so far.” “They don’t normally
have much contact with each other,” said the businessman,
“that would be impossible, there are so many of them. And
they don’t have much in common either. If a group of them
ever thinks they have found something in common it soon
turns out they were mistaken. There’s nothing you can do as
a group where the court’s concerned. Each case is examined
separately, the court is very painstaking. So there’s nothing
to be achieved by forming into a group, only sometimes an
individual will achieve something in secret; and it’s only
when that’s been done the others learn about it; nobody
knows how it was done. So there’s no sense of togetherness,
you meet people now and then in the waiting rooms, but we
don’t talk much there. The superstitious beliefs were estab-
lished a long time ago and they spread all by themselves.” “I
saw those gentlemen in the waiting room,” said K., “it
seemed so pointless for them to be waiting in that way.”
“Waiting is not pointless,” said the businessman, “it’s only
pointless if you try and interfere yourself. I told you just
now I’ve got five lawyers besides this one. You might think I
thought it myself at first you might think I could leave the
whole thing entirely up to them now. That would be entirely
wrong. I can leave it up to them less than when I had just the
one. Maybe you don’t understand that, do you?” “No,” said
K., and to slow the businessman down, who had been speak-
ing too fast, he laid his hand on the businessman’s to
reassure him, “but I’d like just to ask you to speak a little
more slowly, these are many very important things for me,

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