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stroked his long white hair. That now forced him to give an
answer. “I’m rather wary of telling him,” said the lawyer,
and his head could be seen shaking slightly, perhaps so that
he would feel the pressure of Leni’s hand better. Block lis-
tened closely with his head lowered, as if by listening he
were breaking an order. “What makes you so wary about
it?” asked Leni. K. had the feeling he was listening to a con-
trived dialogue that had been repeated many times, that
would be repeated many times more, and that for Block
alone it would never lose its freshness. “What has his behav-
iour been like today?” asked the lawyer instead of an answer.
Before Leni said anything she looked down at Block and
watched him a short while as he raised his hands towards
her and rubbed them together imploringly. Finally she gave
a serious nod, turned back to the lawyer and said, “He’s
been quiet and industrious.” This was an elderly business-
man, a man whose beard was long, and he was begging a
young girl to speak on his behalf. Even if there was some
plan behind what he did, there was nothing that could rein-
state him in the eyes of his fellow man. K. could not
understand how the lawyer could have thought this perfor-
mance would win him over. Even if he had done nothing
earlier to make him want to leave then this scene would
have done so. It was almost humiliating even for the on-
looker. So these were the lawyer’s methods, which K.
fortunately had not been exposed to for long, to let the cli-
ent forget about the whole world and leave him with nothing
but the hope of reaching the end of his trial by this deluded
means. He was no longer a client, he was the lawyer’s dog. If

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