The Trial by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780199238293
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2009-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Block, the Corn Merchant · The Dismissal of the Lawyer

K. HAD finally decided to take his case out of the lawyer’s hands. He couldn’t entirely rid himself of doubts as to whether this was the correct course of action, but they were outweighed by his conviction that it was necessary. On the day he intended to visit the lawyer his decision had severely reduced his capacity for work, he had to stay very late in the office, and it was already after ten when he finally reached the lawyer’s door. But before he rang, he wondered whether it might not be better to dismiss the lawyer by telephone or by letter; the personal interview was bound to be very awkward. Despite that, K. decided he had to go ahead with it. Dismissal by any other method would be accepted in silence, or with a few formal expressions, and, unless Leni could discover something, K. would never find out how the lawyer had taken his dismissal and what consequences, in the lawyer’s not-unimportant opinion, it might have for K. If the lawyer was facing K. and was taken by surprise by the dismissal, K. would easily be able to deduce from his expression and behaviour everything he wanted to know, even if he didn’t get much out of him in the way of words. It was even possible that he might be persuaded that it would be better to leave the handling of his case to the lawyer and withdraw the dismissal.

As usual, the first ring at the lawyer’s door produced no result. ‘Leni could be quicker,’ K. thought. But at least it was a good thing that another tenant didn’t intervene, as they usually did, whether it was the man in the dressing-gown or anyone else who started to pester him. As K. pressed the bell for the second time he looked back at the other door, but this time it remained closed. Finally a pair of eyes appeared in the peephole of the lawyer’s door, but they were not Leni’s eyes. Someone unlocked the door, but kept his weight against it while he shouted back into the apartment, ‘It’s him.’ Only then did he open the door wide. K. had been pushing at the door, for he could hear the key being hastily turned in the door of the other apartment behind him. Thus, when the door finally opened he really shot into the hall, and caught a glimpse of Leni, to whom the warning from the man who opened the door had been addressed, running off in her shift down the corridor between the rooms. He watched her for a moment, then turned to the man who had opened the door. He was a small, scrawny man with a beard, holding a candle in his hand. ‘Do you work here?’ K. asked. ‘No,’ the man replied, ‘I don’t belong here, it’s just that the lawyer is representing me. I’m here on legal business.’ ‘Without your jacket?’ K. asked, indicating the man’s déshabille with a sweep of the arm.

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