The Castle (J. A. Underwood 1997 Translation) by Franz Kafka

Author:Franz Kafka [Kafka, Franz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9780141904153
Publisher: Penguin, Random House
Published: 1922-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

15

At Amalia’s

At last – it was already dark, late afternoon – K. had cleared the garden path, piled the snow on both sides of the path and packed it solid, and had now finished the day’s work. He stood at the garden gate, the only person anywhere in the vicinity. He had driven the assistant off hours ago, chasing him for some distance, the assistant had then hidden somewhere among the gardens and cottages, was no longer to be found, and had not emerged since. Frieda was at home, washing either the clothes already or still Gisa’s cat; it had been a sign of great trust on Gisa’s part, her giving Frieda this job, though it was unsavoury and unsuitable work that K. would certainly not have tolerated her taking on had it not been highly advisable, following various derelictions of duty, to exploit every opportunity of possibly putting Gisa in their debt. A satisfied Gisa had looked on as K. fetched the little baby bath from the attic, water was heated, and finally the cat was carefully lifted in. At that point, Gisa had even left the cat in Frieda’s sole charge, because Schwarzer arrived, K.’s acquaintance from the first evening, he greeted K. with a mixture of timidity, for reason dating from that evening, and the kind of boundless contempt that was a school caretaker’s due, then accompanied Gisa into the other classroom. They were in there still. K. had learned at the Bridge Inn that Schwarzer, who was after all a governor’s son, had for love of Gisa been living in the village for some time now, had contrived through his connections to have the municipality appoint him assistant schoolmaster, but performed that office chiefly by almost never missing a lesson of Gisa’s, sitting either in a desk amongst the children or, for preference, on the rostrum at Gisa’s feet. There was no awkwardness any more, the children had long since grown accustomed to it, perhaps all the more easily for the fact that Schwarzer neither liked nor understood children, hardly spoke to them, had taken over only the PE lessons from Gisa, and was otherwise content to live in Gisa’s vicinity, Gisa’s air, and Gisa’s warmth. His greatest pleasure was to sit beside Gisa and mark exercise books with her. That was what they were doing today, Schwarzer had brought a huge pile of exercise books with him, the schoolmaster always gave them his too, and as long as it remained light K. had seen the two of them working at a table by the window, head to head, motionless, now all that could be seen there was two flickering candles. It was an earnest, taciturn love that bound them, the tone being set by Gisa, whose ponderous nature did occasionally, going wild, break all bounds, but who would not have tolerated anything of the sort in others, not ever, consequently even the lively Schwarzer had to submit, walk slowly, talk slowly, be silent a great

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