Page 238 - the-trial

cion that they wanted to get him out of his office for a while
and check his work, or at least the idea that they thought he
was dispensable. It would not have been difficult for him
to turn down most of these jobs, but he did not dare to do
so because, if his fears had the slightest foundation, turn-
ing the jobs down would have been an acknowledgement of
them. For this reason, he never demurred from accepting
them, and even when he was asked to go on a tiring busi-
ness trip lasting two days he said nothing about having to
go out in the rainy autumn weather when he had a severe
chill, just in order to avoid the risk of not being asked to go.
When, with a raging headache, he arrived back from this
trip he learned that he had been chosen to accompany the
Italian business contact the following day. The temptation
for once to turn the job down was very great, especially as
it had no direct connection with business, but there was no
denying that social obligations towards this business con-
tact were in themselves important enough, only not for K.,
who knew quite well that he needed some successes at work
if he was to maintain his position there and that, if he failed
in that, it would not help him even if this Italian somehow
found him quite charming; he did not want to be removed
from his workplace for even one day, as the fear of not being
allowed back in was too great, he knew full well that the fear
was exaggerated but it still made him anxious. However, in
this case it was almost impossible to think of an acceptable
excuse, his knowledge of Italian was not great but still good
enough; the deciding factor was that K. had earlier known
a little about art history and this had become widely known