Page 72 - the-trial

ining this scene that he decided to take the student along to
Elsa with him if ever he should get the opportunity.
K. was curious to see where the woman would be taken
and he hurried over to the door, the student was not likely
to carry her through the streets on his arm. It turned out
that the journey was far shorter. Directly opposite the flat
there was a narrow flight of wooden steps which probably
led up to the attic, they turned as they went so that it was not
possible to see where they ended. The student carried the
woman up these steps, and after the exertions of running
with her he was soon groaning and moving very slowly. The
woman waved down at K. and by raising and lowering her
shoulders she tried to show that she was an innocent party
in this abduction, although the gesture did not show a lot of
regret. K. watched her without expression like a stranger, he
wanted to show neither that he was disappointed nor that
he would easily get over his disappointment.
The two of them had disappeared, but K. remained
standing in the doorway. He had to accept that the woman
had not only cheated him but that she had also lied to him
when she said she was being taken to the examining judge.
The examining judge certainly wouldn’t be sitting and wait-
ing in the attic. The wooden stairs would explain nothing
to him however long he stared at them. Then K. noticed a
small piece of paper next to them, went across to it and read,
in a childish and unpractised hand, “Entrance to the Court
Offices”. Were the court offices here, in the attic of this ten-
ement, then? If that was how they were accommodated it
did not attract much respect, and it was some comfort for

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