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no reason to do so. You belong to the people I have to com-
bat, and you’re very comfortable among them, you’re even
in love with the student, or if you don’t love him you do at
least prefer him to your husband. It’s easy to see that from
what you’ve been saying.” “No!” she shouted, remained sit-
ting where she was and grasped K.’s hand, which he failed to
pull away fast enough. “You can’t go away now, you can’t go
away when you’ve misjudged me like that! Are you really
capable of going away now? Am I really so worthless that
you won’t even do me the favour of staying a little bit lon-
ger?” “You misunderstand me,” said K., sitting back down,
“if it’s really important to you for me to stay here then I’ll be
glad to do so, I have plenty of time, I came here thinking
there would be a trial taking place. All I meant with what I
said just now was to ask you not to do anything on my be-
half in the proceedings against me. But even that is nothing
for you to worry about when you consider that there’s noth-
ing hanging on the outcome of this trial, and that, whatever
the verdict, I will just laugh at it. And that’s even presuppos-
ing it ever even reaches any conclusion, which I very much
doubt. I think it’s much more likely that the court officials
will be too lazy, too forgetful, or even to fearful ever to con-
tinue with these proceedings and that they will soon be
abandoned if they haven’t been abandoned already. It’s even
possible that they will pretend to be carrying on with the
trial in the hope of receiving a large bribe, although I can
tell you now that that will be quite in vain as I pay bribes to
no-one. Perhaps one favour you could do me would be to
tell the examining judge, or anyone else who likes to spread

The Trial