Page 250 - the-trial

then he slowly turned to face the front and leant down on
the balustrade gripping its angular rail with both hands. He
stood there like that for a while and, without turning his
head, looked around. K. had moved back a long way and
leant his elbows on the front pew. Somewhere in the church
he could not have said exactly where he could make out the
man in the cassock hunched under his bent back and at
peace, as if his work were completed. In the cathedral it was
now very quiet! But K. would have to disturb that silence, he
had no intention of staying there; if it was the priest’s duty
to preach at a certain time regardless of the circumstances
then he could, and he could do it without K.’s taking part,
and K.’s presence would do nothing to augment the effect of
it. So K. began slowly to move, felt his way on tiptoe along
the pew, arrived at the broad aisle and went along it without
being disturbed, except for the sound of his steps, however
light, which rang out on the stone floor and resounded from
the vaulting, quiet but continuous at a repeating, regular
pace. K. felt slightly abandoned as, probably observed by
the priest, he walked by himself between the empty pews,
and the size of the cathedral seemed to be just at the limit
of what a man could bear. When he arrived back at where
he had been sitting he did not hesitate but simply reached
out for the album he had left there and took it with him. He
had nearly left the area covered by pews and was close to
the empty space between himself and the exit when, for the
first time, he heard the voice of the priest. A powerful and
experienced voice. It pierced through the reaches of the ca-
thedral ready waiting for it! But the priest was not calling