Chapter Eight Block, the businessman - Dismissing the lawyer

八　谷物商勃洛克——解聘律师

K. had at last made the decision to withdraw his defence from the lawyer. It was impossible to remove his doubts as to whether this was the right decision, but this was outweighed by his belief in its necessity. This decision, on the day he intended to go to see the lawyer, took a lot of the strength he needed for his work, he worked exceptionally slowly, he had to remain in his office a long time, and it was already past ten o'clock when he finally stood in front of the lawyer's front door. Even before he rang he considered whether it might not be better to give the lawyer notice by letter or telephone, a personal conversation would certainly be very difficult. Nonetheless, K. did not actually want to do without it, if he gave notice by any other means it would be received in silence or with a few formulated words, and unless Leni could discover anything K. would never learn how the lawyer had taken his dismissal and what its consequences might be, in the lawyer's not unimportant opinion. But sitting in front of him and taken by surprise by his dismissal, K. would be able easily to infer everything he wanted from the lawyer's face and behaviour, even if he could not be induced to say very much. It was not even out of the question that K. might, after all, be persuaded that it would be best to leave his defence to the lawyer and withdraw his dismissal.

Ｋ终于决定不让律师过问自己的案子了。采取这个步骤是否明智？他一直对此存着疑问。但是，非此不可的信念最后占了上风。他作了很大努力才下定了这个决心。在他决定去见律师的那天，他的工作效率很低；为了完成任务，他不得不在办公室里呆到很晚才走。当他到律师家门口时，已经十点多了。他在按铃之前，又考虑了一遍；也许用打电话或写信的方式解聘律师更好，当面谈这事不免很难堪。但他不想放弃当面谈的好处；用别的方式解聘律师，律师会默认现状，或者会冠冕堂皇地写一两句话认可。除非Ｋ到莱妮那儿去了解情况，否则他永远也不可能知道，律师对解聘有什么反映，按照律师的看法这个举动会造成什么后果。律师的意见是应该重视的。他和律师面谈，可以出其不意地提出解聘要求；不管律师多么警觉谨慎，Ｋ也会轻而易举地从他的举上中知道自己想知道的一切；Ｋ甚至有可能发现，让律师过问案子更为明智，因而会改变自己的决定。

As usual, there was at first no response to K.'s ring at the door. "Leni could be a bit quicker," thought K. But he could at least be glad there was nobody else interfering as usually happened, be it the man in his nightshirt or anyone else who might bother him. As K. pressed on the button for the second time he looked back at the other door, but this time it, too, remained closed. At last, two eyes appeared at the spy-hatch in the lawyer's door, although they weren't Leni's eyes. Someone unlocked the door, but kept himself pressed against it as he called back inside, "It's him!", and only then did he open the door properly. K. pushed against the door, as behind him he could already hear the key being hurriedly turned in the lock of the door to the other flat. When the door in front of him finally opened, he stormed straight into the hallway. Through the corridor which led between the rooms he saw Leni, to whom the warning cry of the door opener had been directed, still running away in her nightshirt. He looked at her for a moment and then looked round at the person who had opened the door. It was a small, wizened man with a full beard, he held a candle in his hand. "Do you work here?" asked K. "No," answered the man, "I don't belong here at all, the lawyer is only representing me, I'm here on legal business." "Without your coat?" asked K., indicating the man's deficiency of dress with a gesture of his hand. "Oh, do forgive me!" said the man, and he looked at himself in the light of the candle he was holding as if he had not known about his appearance until then. "Is Leni your lover?" asked K. curtly. He had set his legs slightly apart, his hands, in which he held his hat, were behind his back. Merely by being in possession of a thick overcoat he felt his advantage over this thin little man. "Oh God," he said and, shocked, raised one hand in front of his face as if in defence, "no, no, what can you be thinking?" "You look honest enough," said K. with a smile, "but come along anyway." K. indicated with his hat which way the man was to go and let him go ahead of him. "What is your name then?" asked K. on the way. "Block. I'm a businessman," said the small man, twisting himself round as he thus introduced himself, although K. did not allow him to stop moving. "Is that your real name?" asked K. "Of course it is," was the man's reply, "why do you doubt it?" "I thought you might have some reason to keep your name secret," said K. He felt himself as much at liberty as is normally only felt in foreign parts when speaking with people of lower standing, keeping everything about himself to himself, speaking only casually about the interests of the other, able to raise him to a level above one's own, but also able, at will, to let him drop again. K. stopped at the door of the lawyer's office, opened it and, to the businessman who had obediently gone ahead, called, "Not so fast! Bring some light here!" K. thought Leni might have hidden in here, he let the businessman search in every corner, but the room was empty. In front of the picture of the judge K. took hold of the businessman's braces to stop him moving on. "Do you know him?" he asked, pointing upwards with his finger. The businessman lifted the candle, blinked as he looked up and said, "It's a judge." "An important judge?" asked K., and stood to the side and in front of the businessman so that he could observe what impression the picture had on him. The businessman was looking up in admiration. "He's an important judge." "You don't have much insight," said K. "He is the lowest of the lowest examining judges." "I remember now," said the businessman as he lowered the candle, "that's what I've already been told." "Well of course you have," called out K., "I'd forgotten about it, of course you would already have been told." "But why, why?" asked the businessman as he moved forwards towards the door, propelled by the hands of K. Outside in the corridor K. said, "You know where Leni's hidden, do you?" "Hidden?" said the businessman, "No, but she might be in the kitchen cooking soup for the lawyer." "Why didn't you say that immediately?" asked K. "I was going to take you there, but you called me back again," answered the businessman, as if confused by the contradictory commands. "You think you're very clever, don't you," said K, "now take me there!" K. had never been in the kitchen, it was surprisingly big and very well equipped. The stove alone was three times bigger than normal stoves, but it was not possible to see any detail beyond this as the kitchen was at the time illuminated by no more than a small lamp hanging by the entrance. At the stove stood Leni, in a white apron as always, breaking eggs into a pot standing on a spirit lamp. "Good evening, Josef," she said with a glance sideways. "Good evening," said K., pointing with one hand to a chair in a corner which the businessman was to sit on, and he did indeed sit down on it. K. however went very close behind Leni's back, leant over her shoulder and asked, "Who is this man?" Leni put one hand around K. as she stirred the soup with the other, she drew him forward toward herself and said, "He's a pitiful character, a poor businessman by the name of Block. Just look at him." The two of them looked back over their shoulders. The businessman was sitting on the chair that K. had directed him to, he had extinguished the candle whose light was no longer needed and pressed on the wick with his fingers to stop the smoke. "You were in your nightshirt," said K., putting his hand on her head and turning it back towards the stove. She was silent. "Is he your lover?" asked K. She was about to take hold of the pot of soup, but K. took both her hands and said, "Answer me!" She said, "Come into the office, I'll explain everything to you." "No," said K., "I want you to explain it here." She put her arms around him and wanted to kiss him. K., though, pushed her away and said, "I don't want you to kiss me now." "Josef," said Leni, looking at K. imploringly but frankly in the eyes, "you're not going to be jealous of Mr. Block now, are you? Rudi," she then said, turning to the businessman, "help me out will you, I'm being suspected of something, you can see that, leave the candle alone." It had looked as though Mr. Block had not been paying attention but he had been following closely. "I don't even know why you might be jealous," he said ingenuously. "Nor do I, actually," said K., looking at the businessman with a smile. Leni laughed out loud and while K. was not paying attention took the opportunity of embracing him and whispering, "Leave him alone, now, you can see what sort of person he is. I've been helping him a little bit because he's an important client of the lawyer's, and no other reason. And what about you? Do you want to speak to the lawyer at this time of day? He's very unwell today, but if you want I'll tell him you're here. But you can certainly spend the night with me. It's so long since you were last here, even the lawyer has been asking about you. Don't neglect your case! And I've got some things to tell you that I've learned about. But now, before anything else, take your coat off!" She helped him off with his coat, took the hat off his head, ran with the things into the hallway to hang them up, then she ran back and saw to the soup. "Do you want me to tell him you're here straight away or take him his soup first?" "Tell him I'm here first," said K. He was in a bad mood, he had originally intended a detailed discussion of his business with Leni, especially the question of his giving the lawyer notice, but now he no longer wanted to because of the presence of the businessman. Now he considered his affair too important to let this little businessman take part in it and perhaps change some of his decisions, and so he called Leni back even though she was already on her way to the lawyer. "Bring him his soup first," he said, "I want him to get his strength up for the discussion with me, he'll need it." "You're a client of the lawyer's too, aren't you," said the businessman quietly from his corner as if he were trying to find this out. It was not, however, taken well. "What business is that of yours?" said K., and Leni said, "Will you be quiet. - I'll take him his soup first then, shall I?" And she poured the soup into a dish. "The only worry then is that he might go to sleep soon after he's eaten." "What I've got to say to him will keep him awake," said K., who still wanted to intimate that he intended some important negotiations with the lawyer, he wanted Leni to ask him what it was and only then to ask her advice. But instead, she just promptly carried out the order he had given her. When she went over to him with the dish she deliberately brushed against him and whispered, "I'll tell him you're here as soon as he's eaten the soup so that I can get you back as soon as possible." "Just go," said K., "just go." "Be a bit more friendly," she said and, still holding the dish, turned completely round once more in the doorway.

他在律师门上按的第一次铃和往常一样，没有产生任何结果。“莱妮的动作应该迅速一点，”Ｋ想道。不过，谢天谢地的是，这次不像往常那样，没有第二者来多管闲事，比如说，那个穿睡衣的男人或者任何其他爱管闲事的家伙都没有出现。Ｋ又按了一下门铃，同时看着旁边的那扇门，但是这一回两扇门都紧闭着。最后，律师门上的警官后面露出了一双眼睛，但不是莱妮的眼睛。一个人拔掉了门插关儿，但仍旧挡着门，算是一种防范措施。过了一会儿，那人朝屋里喊了一声“是他”后，才来开门。Ｋ靠在门上，他能听见那人急匆匆地转动钥匙所发出的声音。门终于开了，Ｋ几乎是冲进了前厅。他看见莱妮穿着睡衣，沿着过道一溜烟跑开了；那人刚才朝屋里喊了一声，准是给她打招呼。他注视了一会儿她的背影，然后转过身去看看是谁开的门。这是一个瘦骨嶙峋、个子矮小、蓄着长胡子的男人，他的一只手拿着蜡烛。“你在这里干事吗？”Ｋ问。“不是”那人说，“我不是他们家的，我只是律师的一个委托人，有事找他来了。”“你穿着衬衫就来了？”Ｋ指着那人的不合适的衣着问道。“噢，请原谅，”那人说，他借着烛光打量着自己，好像根本不知道自己衣冠不整。“莱妮是你的情妇吗？”Ｋ冷冷地问道。他微微叉开腿，手里拿着帽子，在背后攥紧了拳头。他只是因为自己穿了一件厚呢子大衣，便觉得比那个瘦小的家伙优越。“啊，上帝，”那人说，他伸出一只手，遮在面前，表示惊讶和否认，“不是，不是，你在想些什么呀！”“你看样子是个老实人，”Ｋ笑着说，“但是，这无所谓，走吧！”Ｋ挥动着帽子，推着那人，要他先走。“你叫什么名字？”他们向前走的时候，Ｋ问道。“勃洛克，谷物商，”小个子转过身来自我介绍说，然而Ｋ不能允许那人站着不动。“是你的真名吗？”Ｋ接着问。“当然啰，”这是回答，“你为什么怀疑它不是真名呢？”“我想，你可能有某种原因需要隐姓埋名，”Ｋ说。他现在觉得轻松了，恰似一个人到了外国，和一个不如自己的人讲话，自己的事可以守口如瓶，有关那个人的事，他却可以泰然自若地参加讨论，既有可能赢得别人的尊重，也可以随心所欲地撒手不管。他们走到律师书房门口时，Ｋ停下来，打开门，叫住正沿着过道不紧不慢地走去的谷物商：“别忙着往前走，照一照这儿。”Ｋ想，莱妮也许躲在书房里，他让谷物商端着烛台，把每个屋角都照了一遍：书房中没有人。Ｋ走到法官的肖像前，从身后拉着谷物商的背带，把他拽回来。“你知道他是谁吗？”他指着墙上那幅画问道。谷物商举起蜡烛，眨巴着眼睛，看了一会儿，对Ｋ说：“是一位法官。”“一位高级法官吗？”Ｋ问。他站在那人旁边，观察着这幅画会给那人留下什么印象。谷物商恭恭敬敬地向上看了一眼。“是一位高级法官，”他说。“你的眼力不大好，”Ｋ说，“他是一个级别最低的预审法官。”“现在我想起来了，”那人放下蜡烛说，“以前他们曾经跟我这么讲过。”“这是理所当然的，”Ｋ大声说道，“我怎么会忘记呢，你以前当然听人说起过。”“可是，我为什么一定会听人说起过呢？”那人一面说，一面朝门口走去，因为Ｋ在后面推着他。当他们走到过道里的时候，Ｋ说：“我想，你知道莱妮藏在什么地方吧？”“藏在什么地方？”他说，“不，她可能在厨房里给律师做汤呢。”“你为什么一开始不告诉我呢？”Ｋ问。“我正要把你带到她那儿去，可是你却把我叫住了，”那人回答道，这些互相矛盾的询问似乎把他搞糊涂了。“你以为自己很机灵吧，”Ｋ说，“带我到厨房里去！”Ｋ从来没有到过厨房，这间厨房大得惊人，设备齐全。做饭的炉子比一般炉子大三倍；其它东西看不大清楚，因为只有一盏小灯，挂在门旁。莱妮和平常一样，穿着白围裙，站在炉子旁边，正往搁在煤油炉上的汤锅里打鸡蛋。“晚上好，约瑟夫，”她转过脸，看了Ｋ一眼，说道。“晚上好，”Ｋ说，他把谷物商支使到较远的一张椅子跟前，谷物商顺从地坐下。Ｋ然后走到莱妮身后，贴近她，靠着她的肩头问道：“这人是谁？”莱妮一只手搅着汤，另一只手挽着Ｋ，让他走上前来。“他是个可怜虫，”她说，“一个可怜的谷物商，名叫勃洛克。你瞧他这副模样。”他们两人都回过头去看谷物商。那人正坐在Ｋ指定的那把椅子上，已经把蜡烛吹灭了，因为没有必要再让它点着了；他正用手指掐灭烛蕊。“你只穿着睡衣，”Ｋ说，他使劲把莱妮的头转过去，重新对着炉子。她没回答。“他是你的情人吗？”Ｋ问。她伸手去取汤锅，但是Ｋ抓住她的两只手说：“回答我！”她说：“到书房里去，我全讲给你听。”“不，”Ｋ说，“我要你在这儿告诉我。”她悄悄挽着Ｋ的胳膊，打算吻他，但Ｋ把她推开，对她说：“我不需要你现在吻我。”“约瑟夫，”莱妮说，她用哀求和坦率的目光凝视着他，“你肯定不妒忌勃洛克先生吧？”接着她转身对谷物商说：“卢迪，你来帮帮忙，你瞧，我被怀疑了；把蜡烛放下。”人们可能会以为谷物商一直心不在焉，但是他却马上明白了莱妮讲的话是什么意思。“我不能想像，你有什么可妒忌的，”他单刀直入地说。“我其实也不能想像我会吃醋，”Ｋ笑了笑，看着他回答道。莱妮听后哈哈大笑，乘着Ｋ暂时心绪不错，勾住他的手臂低声说：“现在让他一个人呆着吧，你会明白他是个什么样的家伙。我对他稍微客气了一些，因为他是律师最好的委托人之一，这是惟一的原因。你自己怎么样？今天晚上你想见见律师吗？他今天身体很不好；不过没关系，如果你想见他，我就告诉他你在这儿。但是你一定要在我这儿过夜。你自从上次来这儿后，好久没露面了，连律师也问起了你。对你的案子不能漠不关心嘛！我也听说了一些情况，我会告诉你一些消息的。不过，你先把大衣脱掉吧。”她帮他脱下大衣，接过他的帽子，跑到门厅里去挂好，然后又跑回来看一眼锅里的汤。“我先去通报一声，说是你来了，还是先给他端汤去？”“先通报一声吧，”Ｋ说。他觉得很恼火，因为本来想把整个案子、尤其是解聘律师的问题，和莱妮彻底谈谈；可是谷物商在这儿，把事情全搞糟了。话又说回来，他认为这件事十分重要，不能听任一个小小的谷物商进行干扰；于是他把已经走进过道的莱妮叫了回来。“不，让他先喝汤吧，”他说，“这样，他跟我讲起话来会更有力气，他需要这样。”“这么说来，你也是律师的委托人啰，”谷物商坐在屋角，心平气和地说；他似乎想证实一件事。他的话引起了不良后果。“关你什么事？”Ｋ说；莱妮插嘴说：“你别嚷嚷。”莱妮又对Ｋ说：“好吧，我先把汤给他送去。”她把汤盛在碗里。“不过他很可能马上便会呼呼入睡，他每次吃完东西后都要睡一觉。”“我将要对他讲的话会使他一夜睡不着觉，”Ｋ说，他想使别人明白，他和律师的会晤将是十分重要的；他盼着莱妮会来盘问他，到那时他再请她出主意。但是莱妮只是严格地按着他的吩咐去做。她端着汤，从他面前经过的时候，故意用胳膊肘捅了他一下，轻声对他说：“他一喝完汤，我就向他通报你来了，这样你就可以尽快回到我身边来。”“去吧，”Ｋ说，“你快去吧。”“火气别这么大，”她说，然后便端着汤碗，在门口转过身走了。

K. watched her as she went; the decision had finally been made that the lawyer was to be dismissed, it was probably better that he had not been able to discuss the matter any more with Leni beforehand; she hardly understood the complexity of the matter, she would certainly have advised him against it and perhaps would even have prevented him from dismissing the lawyer this time, he would have remained in doubt and unease and eventually have carried out his decision after a while anyway as this decision was something he could not avoid. The sooner it was carried out the more harm would be avoided. And moreover, perhaps the businessman had something to say on the matter.

Ｋ站在原地，目送着她。现在他已下定决心，一定把律师解聘掉，但他肯定没有机会先和莱妮商量一下。虽然这些事情远远超出她的能力范围，但她准会劝他改变主意；这一次她的意见很可能会占上风，她很可能会让他放弃原来的打算，使他继续成为疑虑和恐惧的牺牲品，直到他的决定最终能付诸实践为止；这个决定太重要了，不能放弃。这个决定实施得越早，他的痛苦也就越少。谷物商也许能在这件事情上开导他一下。

K. turned round, the businessman hardly noticed it as he was about to stand up. "Stay where you are," said K. and pulled up a chair beside him. "Have you been a client of the lawyer's for a long time?" asked K. "Yes," said the businessman, "a very long time." "How many years has he been representing you so far, then?" asked K. "I don't know how you mean," said the businessman, "he's been my business lawyer - I buy and sell cereals - he's been my business lawyer since I took the business over, and that's about twenty years now, but perhaps you mean my own trial and he's been representing me in that since it started, and that's been more than five years. Yes, well over five years," he then added, pulling out an old briefcase, "I've got everything written down; I can tell you the exact dates if you like. It's so hard to remember everything. Probably, my trial's been going on much longer than that, it started soon after the death of my wife, and that's been more than five and a half years now." K. moved in closer to him. "So the lawyer takes on ordinary legal business, does he?" he asked. This combination of criminal and commercial business seemed surprisingly reassuring for K. "Oh yes," said the businessman, and then he whispered, "They even say he's more efficient in jurisprudence than he is in other matters." But then he seemed to regret saying this, and he laid a hand on K.'s shoulder and said, "Please don't betray me to him, will you." K. patted his thigh to reassure him and said, "No, I don't betray people." "He can be so vindictive, you see," said the businessman. "I'm sure he won't do anything against such a faithful client as you," said K. "Oh, he might do," said the businessman, "when he gets cross it doesn't matter who it is, and anyway, I'm not really faithful to him." "How's that then?" asked K. "I'm not sure I should tell you about it," said the businessman hesitantly. "I think it'll be alright," said K. "Well then," said the businessman, "I'll tell you about some of it, but you'll have to tell me a secret too, then we can support each other with the lawyer." "You are very careful," said K., "but I'll tell you a secret that will set your mind completely at ease. Now tell me, in what way have you been unfaithful to the lawyer?" "I've …" said the businessman hesitantly, and in a tone as if he were confessing something dishonourable, "I've taken on other lawyers besides him." "That's not so serious," said K., a little disappointed. "It is, here," said the businessman, who had had some difficulty breathing since making his confession but who now, after hearing K.'s comment, began to feel more trust for him. "That's not allowed. And it's allowed least of all to take on petty lawyers when you've already got a proper one. And that's just what I have done, besides him I've got five petty lawyers." "Five!" exclaimed K., astonished at this number, "Five lawyers besides this one?" The businessman nodded. "I'm even negotiating with a sixth one." "But why do you need so many lawyers?" asked K. "I need all of them," said the businessman. "Would you mind explaining that to me?" asked K. "I'd be glad to," said the businessman. "Most of all, I don't want to lose my case, well that's obvious. So that means I mustn't neglect anything that might be of use to me; even if there's very little hope of a particular thing being of any use I can't just throw it away. So everything I have I've put to use in my case. I've taken all the money out of my business, for example, the offices for my business used to occupy nearly a whole floor, but now all I need is a little room at the back where I work with one apprentice. It wasn't just using up the money that caused the difficulty, of course, it was much more to do with me not working at the business as much as I used to. If you want to do something about your trial you don't have much time for anything else." "So you're also working at the court yourself?" asked K. "That's just what I want to learn more about." "I can't tell you very much about that," said the businessman, "at first I tried to do that too but I soon had to give it up again. It wears you out too much, and it's really not much use. And it turned out to be quite impossible to work there yourself and to negotiate, at least for me it was. It's a heavy strain there just sitting and waiting. You know yourself what the air is like in those offices." "How do you know I've been there, then?" asked K. "I was in the waiting room myself when you went through." "What a coincidence that is!" exclaimed K., totally engrossed and forgetting how ridiculous the businessman had seemed to him earlier. "So you saw me! You were in the waiting room when I went through. Yes, I did go through it one time." "It isn't such a big coincidence," said the businessman, "I'm there nearly every day." "I expect I'll have to go there quite often myself now," said K., "although I can hardly expect to be shown the same respect as I was then. They all stood up for me. They must have thought I was a judge." "No," said the businessman, "we were greeting the servant of the court. We knew you were a defendant. That sort of news spreads very quickly." "So you already knew about that," said K., "the way I behaved must have seemed very arrogant to you. Did you criticise me for it afterwards?" "No," said the businessman, "quite the opposite. That was just stupidity." "What do you mean, 'stupidity'?" asked K. "Why are you asking about it?" said the businessman in some irritation. "You still don't seem to know the people there and you might take it wrong. Don't forget in proceedings like this there are always lots of different things coming up to talk about, things that you just can't understand with reason alone, you just get too tired and distracted for most things and so, instead, people rely on superstition. I'm talking about the others, but I'm no better myself. One of these superstitions, for example, is that you can learn a lot about the outcome of a defendant's case by looking at his face, especially the shape of his lips. There are lots who believe that, and they said they could see from the shape of your lips that you'd definitely be found guilty very soon. I repeat that all this is just a ridiculous superstition, and in most cases it's completely disproved by the facts, but when you live in that society it's hard to hold yourself back from beliefs like that. Just think how much effect that superstition can have. You spoke to one of them there, didn't you? He was hardly able to give you an answer. There are lots of things there that can make you confused, of course, but one of them, for him, was the appearance of your lips. He told us all later he thought he could see something in your lips that meant he'd be convicted himself." "On my lips?" asked K., pulling out a pocket mirror and examining himself. "I can see nothing special about my lips. Can you?" "Nor can I," said the businessman, "nothing at all." "These people are so superstitious!" exclaimed K. "Isn't that what I just told you?" asked the businessman. "Do you then have that much contact with each other, exchanging each other's opinions?" said K. "I've kept myself completely apart so far." "They don't normally have much contact with each other," said the businessman, "that would be impossible, there are so many of them. And they don't have much in common either. If a group of them ever thinks they have found something in common it soon turns out they were mistaken. There's nothing you can do as a group where the court's concerned. Each case is examined separately, the court is very painstaking. So there's nothing to be achieved by forming into a group, only sometimes an individual will achieve something in secret; and it's only when that's been done the others learn about it; nobody knows how it was done. So there's no sense of togetherness, you meet people now and then in the waiting rooms, but we don't talk much there. The superstitious beliefs were established a long time ago and they spread all by themselves." "I saw those gentlemen in the waiting room," said K., "it seemed so pointless for them to be waiting in that way." "Waiting is not pointless," said the businessman, "it's only pointless if you try and interfere yourself. I told you just now I've got five lawyers besides this one. You might think - I thought it myself at first - you might think I could leave the whole thing entirely up to them now. That would be entirely wrong. I can leave it up to them less than when I had just the one. Maybe you don't understand that, do you?" "No," said K., and to slow the businessman down, who had been speaking too fast, he laid his hand on the businessman's to reassure him, "but I'd like just to ask you to speak a little more slowly, these are many very important things for me, and I can't follow exactly what you're saying." "You're quite right to remind me of that," said the businessman, "you're new to all this, a junior. Your trial is six months old, isn't it? Yes, I've heard about it. Such a new case! But I've already thought all these things through countless times, to me they're the most obvious things in the world." "You must be glad your trial has already progressed so far, are you?" asked K., he did not wish to ask directly how the businessman's affairs stood, but received no clear answer anyway. "Yes, I've been working at my trial for five years now," said the businessman as his head sank, "that's no small achievement." Then he was silent for a while. K. listened to hear whether Leni was on her way back. On the one hand he did not want her to come back too soon as he still had many questions to ask and did not want her to find him in this intimate discussion with the businessman, but on the other hand it irritated him that she stayed so long with the lawyer when K. was there, much longer than she needed to give him his soup. "I still remember it exactly," the businessman began again, and K. immediately gave him his full attention, "when my case was as old as yours is now. I only had this one lawyer at that time but I wasn't very satisfied with him." Now I'll find out everything, thought K., nodding vigorously as if he could thereby encourage the businessman to say everything worth knowing. "My case," the businessman continued, "didn't move on at all, there were some hearings that took place and I went to every one of them, collected materials, handed all my business books to the court - which I later found was entirely unnecessary - I ran back and forth to the lawyer, and he submitted various documents to the court too …" "Various documents?" asked K. "Yes, that's right," said the businessman. "That's very important for me," said K., "in my case he's still working on the first set of documents. He still hasn't done anything. I see now that he's been neglecting me quite disgracefully." "There can be lots of good reasons why the first documents still aren't ready," said the businessman, "and anyway, it turned out later on that the ones he submitted for me were entirely worthless. I even read one of them myself, one of the officials at the court was very helpful. It was very learned, but it didn't actually say anything. Most of all, there was lots of Latin, which I can't understand, then pages and pages of general appeals to the court, then lots of flattery for particular officials, they weren't named, these officials, but anyone familiar with the court must have been able to guess who they were, then there was self-praise by the lawyer where he humiliated himself to the court in a way that was downright dog-like, and then endless investigations of cases from the past which were supposed to be similar to mine. Although, as far as I was able to follow them, these investigations had been carried out very carefully. Now, I don't mean to criticise the lawyer's work with all of this, and the document I read was only one of many, but even so, and this is something I will say, at that time I couldn't see any progress in my trial at all." "And what sort of progress had you been hoping for?" asked K. "That's a very sensible question," said the businessman with a smile, "it's only very rare that you see any progress in these proceedings at all. But I didn't know that then. I'm a businessman, much more in those days than now, I wanted to see some tangible progress, it should have all been moving to some conclusion or at least should have been moving on in some way according to the rules. Instead of which there were just more hearings, and most of them went through the same things anyway; I had all the answers off pat like in a church service; there were messengers from the court coming to me at work several times a week, or they came to me at home or anywhere else they could find me; and that was very disturbing of course (but at least now things are better in that respect, it's much less disturbing when they contact you by telephone), and rumours about my trial even started to spread among some of the people I do business with, and especially my relations, so I was being made to suffer in many different ways but there was still not the slightest sign that even the first hearing would take place soon. So I went to the lawyer and complained about it. He explained it all to me at length, but refused to do anything I asked for, no-one has any influence on the way the trial proceeds, he said, to try and insist on it in any of the documents submitted - like I was asking - was simply unheard of and would do harm to both him and me. I thought to myself: What this lawyer can't or won't do another lawyer will. So I looked round for other lawyers. And before you say anything: none of them asked for a definite date for the main trial and none of them got one, and anyway, apart from one exception which I'll talk about in a minute, it really is impossible, that's one thing this lawyer didn't mislead me about; but besides, I had no reason to regret turning to other lawyers. Perhaps you've already heard how Dr. Huld talks about the petty lawyers, he probably made them sound very contemptible to you, and he's right, they are contemptible. But when he talks about them and compares them with himself and his colleagues there's a small error running through what he says, and, just for your interest, I'll tell you about it. When he talks about the lawyers he mixes with he sets them apart by calling them the 'great lawyers'. That's wrong, anyone can call himself 'great' if he wants to, of course, but in this case only the usage of the court can make that distinction. You see, the court says that besides the petty lawyers there are also minor lawyers and great lawyers. This one and his colleagues are only minor lawyers, and the difference in rank between them and the great lawyers, who I've only ever heard about and never seen, is incomparably greater than between the minor lawyers and the despised petty lawyers." "The great lawyers?" asked K. "Who are they then? How do you contact them?" "You've never heard about them, then?" said the businessman. "There's hardly anyone who's been accused who doesn't spend a lot of time dreaming about the great lawyers once he's heard about them. It's best if you don't let yourself be misled in that way. I don't know who the great lawyers are, and there's probably no way of contacting them. I don't know of any case I can talk about with certainty where they've taken any part. They do defend a lot of people, but you can't get hold of them by your own efforts, they only defend those who they want to defend. And I don't suppose they ever take on cases that haven't already got past the lower courts. Anyway, it's best not to think about them, as if you do it makes the discussions with the other lawyers, all their advice and all that they do manage to achieve, seem so unpleasant and useless, I had that experience myself, just wanted to throw everything away and lay at home in bed and hear nothing more about it. But that, of course, would be the stupidest thing you could do, and you wouldn't be left in peace in bed for very long either." "So you weren't thinking about the great lawyers at that time?" asked K. "Not for very long," said the businessman, and smiled again, "you can't forget about them entirely, I'm afraid, especially in the night when these thoughts come so easily. But I wanted immediate results in those days, so I went to the petty lawyers."

他于是向谷物商转过身去，谷物商猛地动了一下，好像要蹦起来。“坐着吧，”Ｋ说，他拽过一把椅子，坐在谷物商身边。“你早就是律师的委托人了，是吗？”“是的，”谷物商说，“很早就是他的委托人。”“他过问你的案子有多久了？”Ｋ问。“我不明白你指的是什么事，”商人说，“在商务上——我是个谷物商——律师从一开始就是我的代理人，也就是说二十年来一直如此；至于说我个人的案子——你大概指的是这事——，他也是从一开始，也就是说五年多以前，就是我的律师。是的，到现在已经五年多了，”他拿出一个旧笔记本，以证实自己说的话，“我在这里面全记着。如果你愿意的话，我可以把确切日期说出来。凭脑子记住这些日期是很困难的。我的案子也许还应上溯到更早的时候，比我说的还要早，我妻子一死就开始了，肯定在五年半以前。”Ｋ把椅子挪得更加挨近那人。“这么说来，律师还兼管过问遗产纠纷？”Ｋ问。法院和法学之间的联系在他看来似乎牢固得不同一般。“那当然，”谷物商说，他接着低声补充了一句：“他们甚至说，他在处理遗产纠纷方面比在其它方面更内行。”接着，他显然后悔自己讲得太多了，便伸出一只手，搭在Ｋ肩上，对Ｋ说：“别出卖我，求求你。”Ｋ轻轻拍拍他的大腿，说道：“不会的，我不会告密。”“你知道，他惯于打击报复，”勃洛克说。“他肯定不会伤害一个像你这样忠诚的委托人的，对吗？”Ｋ说。“噢，他会的，”勃洛克说，“他一旦发火，便六亲不认；此外，我其实对他也并不忠诚。”“这是怎么回事？”Ｋ问。“我也许不该告诉你，”勃洛克犹豫不决地说。“我想你不妨说出来，”Ｋ说。“好吧，”勃洛克说，“我告诉你几件事，但是你也得把你的秘密讲一件给我听听，这样咱们就彼此捏着对方的一个把柄了。”“你真谨慎，”Ｋ说，“我将要告诉你的那个秘密会使你的一切怀疑烟消云散。现在请你说说，你是怎么对律师不忠诚的。”“好吧，”商人踌躇地说，好像在招认一件见不得人的事，“除了他以外，我还有其他律师。”“这并没有什么了不起的，”Ｋ说，他有些失望。“据说这是不行的，”商人说，他从开始讲话起，一直紧张得喘不过气来，不过现在由于Ｋ的配合，他放心了。“不允许这样做。特别是当你有了一个正式的律师后，就更不准找那些讼师商量了。而我却正在这么干，除了他以外，我还有五个讼师。”“五个！”Ｋ嚷道，他为这个数字感到惊讶，“除了这位以外，还有五个律师？”勃洛克点点头继续说道：“我还正在和第六个律师商谈呢。”“不过，你需要这么多律师干什么？”Ｋ问。“他们中间的每个人都对我有用处，”勃洛克说。“告诉我这是怎么回事，愿意吗？”Ｋ说。“当然愿意，”谷物商说，“首先，我不想输掉官司，这点你很容易理解；所以我不敢放过任何可能对我有用的东西。如果有一线给自己带来好处的希望，哪怕这个希望很渺茫，我也决不放弃。正是由于这个原因，我为自己的案子花了所有的钱。比如说，我把做生意的钱全填上了；原先我的商行差不多占了整整一层楼，现在我只需要一间朝北的屋子和一个伙计就够了。当然我的生意之所以凋敝，并不仅仅是因为资金花光了，而是因为我精力不济。当你全力以赴为自己的案子奔走时，你不会有多少精力花在其它事情上。”“这么说来，你也是自己为自己的事情奔走啰，”Ｋ打断他的话，“我正想问你这个问题呢。”“这没什么可多说的，”谷物商说，“开始时我试图自己过问此事，后来我不得不作罢。太耗费精力了，结果也令人失望。光是到法院里去，看看事情的动向，也得付出很大代价，至少对我来讲是如此。即使你只是在那里坐着，等着来叫你，你也会觉得无精打采。你也知道那儿的空气怎么样。”“你怎么知道我上法院去过？”Ｋ问。“你从过道里走过的时候，我正好在那儿。”“真凑巧！”Ｋ嚷道，他被谷物商的话吸引住了，完全忘了他刚才还认为谷物商是一个十分可笑的人物，“这么说，你看见我了！我从过道里走过的时候，你在那里。不错，我是从过道里走过一次。”“这并不是一次什么巧合，”谷物商说，“我差不多每天都要上那儿去。”“我可能从现在起，也得经常上那儿去了，”Ｋ说，“不过，我大概不能受到像那次那么隆重的迎接了：当时大家都站了起来。我想，你们准把我当作法官了吧。”“不对，”商人说，“我们站了起来，是因为门房的缘故。我们知道，你也是个被告。这类消息不胫而走。”“这么说来，你那时就已经知道了，”Ｋ说，“你们也许以为我是个身居高位、有权有势的人物吧。没有人议论起这点吗？”“对你的评价不坏，”谷物商说，“不过，全是无稽之谈。”“怎么会是无稽之谈呢？”Ｋ问。“你干吗要追问呢？”谷物商温怒地说，“你看来还不了解那儿的人，你会产生误解的。你要记住，在这些法院里，所有事情都要提出来进行讨论，这些讨论荒谬绝伦。人们累了，再也不能集中注意力思索问题了，于是便求助于迷信。我在这方面和其他人一样糟糕。按照一种迷信观点，人们可以从一个人的脸相上，尤其是他的唇部线条上，看出他的案子的结局会怎样。比如说，人们会宣称，根据你的唇部动作判断，你将被认定有罪，而且就在不久的将来。我可以告诉你，这种迷信行为愚蠢之极，在很多情况下，这样作出的臆断与事实完全不符。但是，如果你生活在这些人中间，你就很难不受这种压倒一切的看法的影响。你想像不出，这类迷信行为会产生多么深刻的影响。你在那儿对一个人讲过话，对不对？他很难说出一句话来回答你。人们一到那儿便糊涂了，原因当然很多；他无言以答的原因之一是：看到你的嘴唇后，他受到了刺激。他后来说，他在你的嘴唇上发现了他自己要被定罪的迹象。”“在我的嘴唇上？”Ｋ问，他从口袋里掏出一面小镜子，仔细端详着自己的嘴唇。“我在我的嘴唇上看不出任何特殊的东西来。你能看出来吗？”“我也看不出，”谷物商说，“一点也看不出。”“那些人真迷信！”Ｋ大声说道。“我不是告诉过你吗？”谷物商说。“那么，他们大概经常见面，交换看法吧？”Ｋ问，“我和他们从来没有打过任何交道。”“他们一般不大来往，”谷物商说，“他们不大可能常见面，因为他们人数太多了。此外，他们的共同利益很少。有些人偶尔相信找到了一种共同利益，但是很快就会发现自己错了。人们无法采取统一行动来反对法院。每桩案子都单独审理，法院在这一点上毫不含糊。因此采取共同行动的可能性根本谈不上。个别人可能秘密地在这儿或那儿取得一些进展，但其他人只有到事后才能略知一二，谁也不会知道它的来龙去脉。因此，并没有真正的统一行动；人们在过道里虽然频频相遇，但交谈的次数却很少。迷信是个古老的传统，正在自发地增长。”“我看见了过道中所有的人，”Ｋ指出，“我心想，他们在这儿闲逛是多么无意义啊。”“不是没有意义。完全不是，”勃洛克说，“惟一无意义的事是采取独立行动。我已经对你说过，除了这位以外，我还有五位律师。你可能会想——我也曾经这么想过——我可以高枕无忧、撒手不管这件案子了。你如果这么想就错了。我必须更密切地注视它，比我只有一个律师时更注意。我想，你不能理解这点，是吗？”“是的，”Ｋ说，他伸出手，按在那人手上，请他别讲得这么快，“我想请你讲得稍微慢一点，这些事情对我极为重要，我跟不上你讲话的速度。”“我很高兴，你提醒了我，”谷物商说，“当然，你是新来的，你在这类事情中还缺乏经验。你的案子刚六个月，对不对？没错，我听说过。六个月时间太短了！而我对这类事情却已经考虑过不知多少遍了，这已成了我的第二天性。”“我想，当你想到你的案子已经进展到这一步时，内心一定充满了感激，”Ｋ说，他不想直接打听谷物商的案子进行到什么程度了。他没有得到直接的回答。“是的，我这个包袱背了足足五年，”勃洛克低下头说，“这不是一件小事。”他接着沉默了一会儿。Ｋ注意倾听，莱妮是不是回来了。一方面，他不愿意莱妮这时进来，因为他还有许多问题要问，他不想让她看见他正和谷物商进行推心置腹的交谈；可是，另一方面，他又为莱妮明明知道他在这儿却仍旧在律师身边呆这么久而烦恼：送一碗汤哪里用得了这么多时间呢！“我还能清楚地回忆起开始时的情况，”谷物商重新开始说，Ｋ立即聚精会神地听着，“当时我的案子正处于你的案子现在所处的阶段。我那时只有这么一个律师，我对他不十分满意。”“现在我能够把一切都弄个水落石出了，”Ｋ想，他亲切地点着头，好像这样做就能激励谷物商把所有情况都和盘托出。“当时我的案子一点进展也没有，”勃洛克接着说，“已经开过几次庭，我每次都出庭受审；我搜集了证据，甚至把所有的账册都送到法院里去。后来我发现，完全是多此一举。我常常到律师这儿来，他呈交过好几份申诉书——”“好几份申诉书？”Ｋ问。“是的，没错，”勃洛克说。“这一点对我很重要，”Ｋ说，“因为他正为我的案子准备第一份申诉书呢。他到目前为止，什么都没写出来。我这下才明白他对我多么不关心，简直可耻。”“申诉书至今还没有写好，可能他也有一些充分的理由，”勃洛克说，“老实告诉你吧，我的那些申诉书后来几乎毫无用处。多亏一位法官的好意，我看见过其中的一份。写得很深奥，但是空洞无物。开头塞了一句拉丁文，我看不懂；然后是满满几页向法院进行的一般性申诉；接着吹捧了某些法官，虽然没有指名道姓，但精于此道的人一看就知道夸的是谁；接下去是律师自我吹嘘一番，与此同时又对法院进行阿谀奉承；最后是分析几个据说和我的情况相似的过去的案例。根据我了解到的情况，我得承认，这种分析是很细致、很精辟的。你别以为我是在评价律师的工作；那份申诉书不过是许许多多申诉书中的一份而已。不过，不管怎么说，我没有看出我的案子有了任何进展。这就是我要说的意思。”“你希望看到什么性质的进展呢？”Ｋ问。“这个问题提得好，”谷物商笑着说，“这些案子很难取得明显的进展。但我当时不明白这一点。我是商人，当时的我比现在的我更像一个商人。我当时只想得到看得见的结果，我想，这一系列磋商要么结束，要么按正常途径，转人更高一级。可是随之而来的却只是一些走过场的传审，一次接着一次，内容大致相同，我可以像念祷文一样作答。法院的传令人每星期要到我的商行、我家里或者任何能找到我的地方来好几次，这当然很讨厌，现在这方面的情况大有改善，因为打电话找我并不使我太烦恼了。此外，关于我的案子的谣言到处流传，不仅传到我的实业界朋友耳中，甚至连我的亲戚们也知道了。所以，我到处碰壁，而法院则没有表现出任何意图，要在不久的将来依法审理我的案子。于是我便来到律师这里，向他发泄了我的怨愤。他让我详详细细地讲了一遍，但是断然拒绝按我说的意思采取行动。他说，任何人也不能促使法院确定听取案情的日期，在申诉书里写上这样的要求——我正希望他这样做——是前所未闻的，这只会毁了我自己和他。我心想：这位律师不想做或不能做的事，另一位律师准愿意和有能力做。于是我便去物色其他律师。我现在也得告诉你，他们之中谁也没有请求过法院确定审理我的案子的日期，也没有为了争取开庭审判而作过任何努力。这样做实际上是不可能的——这儿有一个例外，过一会儿我再解释。这位律师其实并没有误我的事，但我也不认为有必要因为找了其他律师而懊悔。我想，霍尔德博士已经对你讲了很多有关讼师的事情了，他准是把他们贬得一钱不值；在某种意义上他们也确实如此。但是他在谈到他们时，以及把他们和他自己以及自己的同事们相比较时，总会犯一个小小的错误，我顺便提醒你注意这点。他总把自己圈子里的律师称为“大律师”，用作对比。这是不符合事实的；当然，任何人只要自己高兴，都可以在自己的头衔面前加上“大”字；但是这件事应该由法院的传统来决定。除了不学无术的律师外，所有大小律师都得到法院的承认，按照法院的传统，我们的律师和他的同事们只属于小律师的范畴，而真正的大律师们我仅仅听说过，从来也没有见到过，他们高踞于小律师之上，就像小律师高踞于讼师之上一样。”“真正的大律师们？”Ｋ问，“他们到底是些什么人呢？人们怎么才能找到他们呢？”“这么说，你从来没有听说过他们，”勃洛克说，“被告们听说大律师的事后，总会昼思梦想地盼着见见他们，难得有一个被告是例外。不过，你可别上当。我不晓得大律师们是谁，我也不相信能够找到他们。他们曾经确切无疑地干预过的案子我一个也不知道。因为他们只是在自己高兴的时候才为某些案子辩护。他们只为自己愿意为其辩护的人辩护。另外我想，他们只是在案子已经超出低级法院的审理范围时才采取行动。事实上，人们最好把这些大律师们统统忘掉，不然的话，他们听着普通律师说出的那些谨小慎微的主意和建议，会觉得这些谈话味同嚼蜡，是蠢人之举——我自己有过亲身体会；于是他们便想把一切统统抛弃，上床蒙头睡大觉。这么干当然就更蠢了，因为即使上了床也睡不安稳。”“这么说，你当时没想去找大律师吗？”Ｋ问。“有一段时间是这样，”勃洛克说，他又笑了笑，“不幸的是，人们无法把大律师们忘得一干二净，尤其是夜里。不过当时我需要立即见成效，因此我便去找那些论师了。”

"Well look at you two sat huddled together!" called Leni as she came back with the dish and stood in the doorway. They were indeed sat close together, if either of them turned his head even slightly it would have knocked against the other's, the businessman was not only very small but also sat hunched down, so that K. was also forced to bend down low if he wanted to hear everything. "Not quite yet!" called out K., to turn Leni away, his hand, still resting on the businessman's hand, twitching with impatience. "He wanted me to tell him about my trial," said the businessman to Leni. "Carry on, then, carry on," she said. She spoke to the businessman with affection but, at the same time, with condescension. K. did not like that, he had begun to learn that the man was of some value after all, he had experience at least, and he was willing to share it. Leni was probably wrong about him. He watched her in irritation as Leni now took the candle from the businessman's hand - which he had been holding on to all this time - wiped his hand with her apron and then knelt beside him to scratch off some wax that had dripped from the candle onto his trousers. "You were about to tell me about the petty lawyers," said K., shoving Leni's hand away with no further comment. "What's wrong with you today?" asked Leni, tapped him gently and carried on with what she had been doing. "Yes, the petty lawyers," said the businessman, putting his hand to his brow as if thinking hard. K. wanted to help him and said, "You wanted immediate results and so went to the petty lawyers." "Yes, that's right," said the businessman, but did not continue with what he'd been saying. "Maybe he doesn't want to speak about it in front of Leni," thought K., suppressing his impatience to hear the rest straight away, and stopped trying to press him.

“你们两个挨得真近呀！”莱妮嚷道，她端着汤碗回来了，正站在门口。他们确实紧挨在一起坐着，头只要稍稍一动就会碰着；小个子勃洛克坐在那儿，身体向前倾，说话声音很低，Ｋ只好朝他俯下身去，才能听见他说的每句话。“让我们在一起安安静静地呆一会儿，”Ｋ大声说道，他让莱妮走开，由于忿怒，他那只仍然按在谷物商手上的手在发抖。“他要我向他介绍我的案子，”谷物商对莱妮说。“好吧，你接着向他介绍吧，”她说。她对勃洛克讲话时用的是一种和气、然而略带傲慢的语气，这使Ｋ不悦。不管怎样，Ｋ已经发现，谷物商具有某种价值，他有自己的经验，知道怎样向别人介绍这些经验。莱妮起码是没有发现他的价值，这是可能的。更使Ｋ不高兴的是，莱妮拿走了谷物商一直握在手中的蜡烛，用围裙擦干净他的手，还俯下身去刮掉落在他裤子上的烛泪。“你刚才讲到你去找那些讼师了，”Ｋ说，然后默默地把莱妮的手推开。“你这是在干什么？”她问，并且轻轻拍了Ｋ一下，继续刮谷物商裤子上的烛泪。“是的，我去找讼师了，”勃洛克说，他用手摸着额头，像是在回想。Ｋ想帮助他回忆，因此又说了一句：“你当时需要立即见效果，所以便去找那些讼师。”“对了，”勃洛克说，但没有讲下去。“他大概不愿意当着莱妮的面讲，”Ｋ想道；他立即克制住急于听下文的心情，没有再催那人讲下去。

"Have you told him I'm here?" he asked Leni. "Course I have," she said, "he's waiting for you. Leave Block alone now, you can talk to Block later, he'll still be here." K. still hesitated. "You'll still be here?" he asked the businessman, wanting to hear the answer from him and not wanting Leni to speak about the businessman as if he weren't there, he was full of secret resentment towards Leni today. And once more it was only Leni who answered. "He often sleeps here." "He sleeps here?" exclaimed K., he had thought the businessman would just wait there for him while he quickly settled his business with the lawyer, and then they would leave together to discuss everything thoroughly and undisturbed. "Yes," said Leni, "not everyone's like you, Josef, allowed to see the lawyer at any time you like. Don't even seem surprised that the lawyer, despite being ill, still receives you at eleven o'clock at night. You take it far too much for granted, what your friends do for you. Well, your friends, or at least I do, we like to do things for you. I don't want or need any more thanks than that you're fond of me." "Fond of you?" thought K. at first, and only then it occurred to him, "Well, yes, I am fond of her." Nonetheless, what he said, forgetting all the rest, was, "He receives me because I am his client. If I needed anyone else's help I'd have to beg and show gratitude whenever I do anything." "He's really nasty today, isn't he?" Leni asked the businessman. "Now it's me who's not here," thought K., and nearly lost his temper with the businessman when, with the same rudeness as Leni, he said, "The lawyer also has other reasons to receive him. His case is much more interesting than mine. And it's only in its early stages too, it probably hasn't progressed very far so the lawyer still likes to deal with him. That'll all change later on." "Yeah, yeah," said Leni, looking at the businessman and laughing. "He doesn't half talk!" she said, turning to face K. "You can't believe a word he says. He's as talkative as he is sweet. Maybe that's why the lawyer can't stand him. At least, he only sees him when he's in the right mood. I've already tried hard to change that but it's impossible. Just think, there are times when I tell him Block's here and he doesn't receive him until three days later. And if Block isn't on the spot when he's called then everything's lost and it all has to start all over again. That's why I let Block sleep here, it wouldn't be the first time Dr. Huld has wanted to see him in the night. So now Block is ready for that. Sometimes, when he knows Block is still here, he'll even change his mind about letting him in to see him." K. looked questioningly at the businessman. The latter nodded and, although he had spoken quite openly with K. earlier, seemed to be confused with shame as he said, "Yes, later on you become very dependent on your lawyer." "He's only pretending to mind," said Leni. "He likes to sleep here really, he's often said so." She went over to a little door and shoved it open. "Do you want to see his bedroom?" she asked. K. went over to the low, windowless room and looked in from the doorway. The room contained a narrow bed which filled it completely, so that to get into the bed you would need to climb over the bedpost. At the head of the bed there was a niche in the wall where, fastidiously tidy, stood a candle, a bottle of ink, and a pen with a bundle of papers which were probably to do with the trial. "You sleep in the maid's room?" asked K., as he went back to the businessman. "Leni's let me have it," answered the businessman, "it has many advantages." K. looked long at him; his first impression of the businessman had perhaps not been right; he had experience as his trial had already lasted a long time, but he had paid a heavy price for this experience. K. was suddenly unable to bear the sight of the businessman any longer. "Bring him to bed, then!" he called out to Leni, who seemed to understand him. For himself, he wanted to go to the lawyer and, by dismissing him, free himself from not only the lawyer but also from Leni and the businessman. But before he had reached the door the businessman spoke to him gently. "Excuse me, sir," he said, and K. looked round crossly. "You've forgotten your promise," said the businessman, stretching his hand out to K. imploringly from where he sat. "You were going to tell me a secret." "That is true," said K., as he glanced at Leni, who was watching him carefully, to check on her. "So listen; it's hardly a secret now anyway. I'm going to see the lawyer now to sack him." "He's sacking him!" yelled the businessman, and he jumped up from his chair and ran around the kitchen with his arms in the air. He kept on shouting, "He's sacking his lawyer!" Leni tried to rush at K. but the businessman got in her way so that she shoved him away with her fists. Then, still with her hands balled into fists, she ran after K. who, however, had been given a long start. He was already inside the lawyer's room by the time Leni caught up with him. He had almost closed the door behind himself, but Leni held the door open with her foot, grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back. But he put such pressure on her wrist that, with a sigh, she was forced to release him. She did not dare go into the room straight away, and K. locked the door with the key.

“你通报过了吗？”他转而问莱妮。“当然啰，”她说，“律师在等着你呢。现在你让勃洛克一人呆着吧，你过一会儿可以再找他谈话，因为他总呆在这儿。”Ｋ仍旧犹豫不决。“你总呆在这儿吗？”他问谷物商；他想要那人自己说，不愿意莱妮来替他说话，因为她讲起话来旁若无人，好像那人根本不在场。Ｋ今天不知怎么回事，对莱妮很生气。可是，开口讲话的又是莱妮：“他常在这儿睡觉。”“在这儿睡觉？”Ｋ嚷道，他原以为谷物商只会等到他和律师的短暂谈话结束，然后他们就一起离开这儿，找个地方私下里彻底磋商一下这件事。“是的，”莱妮说，“谁都不像你，约瑟夫，爱什么时候来找律师就什么时候来。你甚至认为，如果你夜里十一点钟求见像律师这样一个病人，他也应该答应，你不会觉得这有什么奇怪。你以为朋友们为你所做的一切都是理所当然的。不错，你的朋友们，至少是我，愿意为你效劳。我不要你感谢我，我不需要任何人的感谢；我只希望你喜欢我。”“喜欢你？”Ｋ想，但他只是在脑中出现了这几个字后才想到：“我是喜欢她的。”不过，他不理会她讲的其它活，就其一点说道：“他答应会见我，因为我是他的委托人。如果我想找律师谈一次话，还需要其他人帮忙，那我就得不断鞠躬作揖了。”“他今天真难对付，对不对？”莱妮对谷物商说。“现在轮到我受冷遇了，她只跟他说话，似乎我不在场，”Ｋ想道，他同时也对谷物商发火，因为谷物商讲话的方式也像莱妮一样没礼貌：“不过，律师答应会见他，还有其它理由。他的案子比我的案子要有意思得多。另外，他的案子仍处于开始阶段，可能还有希望，所以律师愿意过问。以后你会发现这两个案子是不同的。”“不错，不错，”莱妮说，她看着谷物商，笑了笑，“你真会说话！”这时，她转而对Ｋ说：“他讲的话，你一个字也别相信。他倒是一个好人，就是太饶舌。律师也许就是因为这个缘故才无法忍受他。所以，律师除非心绪特别好，否则从来不见他。我尽量想办法改变这种局面，可是没有用处。你想想，我有几次对律师说，勃洛克在这儿呢，可是律师却过了三天才见他。如果律师想见他时，他正好不在，那么他的机会就丧失了；我就又得从头开始，为他重新通报。因此我得让勃洛克睡在这儿，因为以前曾经发生过律师半夜打电话来叫他的情况。所以勃洛克必须时刻准备见律师，不分白天黑夜。有时也会遇到律师改变想法的情况，有一次他发现勃洛克确实是在原地恭候，可是他却拒绝会见。”Ｋ向谷物商投了一瞥询问的目光，那人点点头，用刚才那种直爽的口气，也许还夹杂着一种自惭形秽的不安心情说道：“是的，随着时间的过去，人们越来越离不开自己的律师。”“他不过是无病呻吟而已，”莱妮说，“因为他喜欢睡在这儿，他经常这么对我说。”她朝一扇小门走去，把它推开。“你想看看他的卧室吗？”她问。Ｋ跟着她走，从门口向里面看了一眼：这间屋子天花板很低，没有窗子，窄得只能放一张床，要上床就得爬过床架。床头边的墙上有个洞，里面放着一根蜡烛，一个墨水瓶和一支笔，这些东西都整整齐齐地摆在一叠文件旁边——可能是有关案子的文件。“这么说，你睡在女仆的房间里？”Ｋ转过头来问谷物商。“是莱妮让我睡在这儿的，”他说，“这儿很方便。”Ｋ久久地注视着他；他给Ｋ留下的第一个印象也许不错；勃洛克经验丰富，这是肯定的，因为他的案子已经拖了好几年，然而他为取得这些经验却付出了很高的代价。Ｋ突然觉得无法忍受他的那副模样。“让他上床去，”Ｋ对莱妮嚷道，她好像没明白他的意思。其实他是想摆脱律师，不仅使霍尔德，而且也使莱妮和谷物商从自己的生活中消失。但是，勃洛克在走到卧室门口之前，低声对Ｋ说：“Ｋ先生。”Ｋ生气地转过身来。“你忘了自己的诺言，”商人说，他朝Ｋ伸出手，像是在哀求。“你得把你的一个秘密告诉我。”“不错，”Ｋ说，并且扫了莱妮一眼，莱妮正全神贯注地看着他。“好吧，你听着，不过现在已经是一个公开的秘密了。我要到律师那儿去，解聘他，不要他过问我的案子。”“解聘他！”谷物商惊奇地喊道；他从椅子上跳起来，举起双臂，在厨房里匆匆跑了一圈，一面跑一面嚷道：“他要解聘律师！”莱妮抓住Ｋ的胳膊，但是勃洛克却把他拉开，她攥起拳头打勃洛克。她握着拳，赶紧去追Ｋ，Ｋ已经走了好远了。她刚要追上Ｋ，Ｋ却一步跨进律师的房间；他打算随手把门关上，但是莱妮从门缝中挤进一只脚来，伸出手，抓住他的胳膊往后拽。Ｋ使劲捏着莱妮的手腕，疼得她“哎哟”一声，不得不松开手。她不敢硬挤进屋来，Ｋ钥匙一转，把门锁了。

"I've been waiting for you a very long time," said the lawyer from his bed. He had been reading something by the light of a candle but now he laid it onto the bedside table and put his glasses on, looking at K. sharply through them. Instead of apologising K. said, "I'll be leaving again soon." As he had not apologised the lawyer ignored what K. said, and replied, "I won't let you in this late again next time." "I find that quite acceptable," said K. The lawyer looked at him quizzically. "Sit down," he said. "As you wish," said K., drawing a chair up to the bedside table and sitting down. "It seemed to me that you locked the door," said the lawyer. "Yes," said K., "it was because of Leni." He had no intention of letting anyone off lightly. But the lawyer asked him, "Was she being importunate again?" "Importunate?" asked K. "Yes," said the lawyer, laughing as he did so, had a fit of coughing and then, once it had passed, began to laugh again. "I'm sure you must have noticed how importunate she can be sometimes," he said, and patted K.'s hand which K. had rested on the bedside table and which he now snatched back. "You don't attach much importance to it, then," said the lawyer when K. was silent, "so much the better. Otherwise I might have needed to apologise to you. It is a peculiarity of Leni's. I've long since forgiven her for it, and I wouldn't be talking of it now, if you hadn't locked the door just now. Anyway, perhaps I should at least explain this peculiarity of hers to you, but you seem rather disturbed, the way you're looking at me, and so that's why I'll do it, this peculiarity of hers consists in this; Leni finds most of the accused attractive. She attaches herself to each of them, loves each of them, even seems to be loved by each of them; then she sometimes entertains me by telling me about them when I allow her to. I am not so astonished by all of this as you seem to be. If you look at them in the right way the accused really can be attractive, quite often. But that is a remarkable and to some extent scientific phenomenon. Being indicted does not cause any clear, precisely definable change in a person's appearance, of course. But it's not like with other legal matters, most of them remain in their usual way of life and, if they have a good lawyer looking after them, the trial doesn't get in their way. But there are nonetheless those who have experience in these matters who can look at a crowd, however big, and tell you which among them is facing a charge. How can they do that, you will ask. My answer will not please you. It is simply that those who are facing a charge are the most attractive. It cannot be their guilt that makes them attractive as not all of them are guilty - at least that's what I, as a lawyer, have to say - and nor can it be the proper punishment that has made them attractive as not all of them are punished, so it can only be that the proceedings levelled against them take some kind of hold on them. Whatever the reason, some of these attractive people are indeed very attractive. But all of them are attractive, even Block, pitiful worm that he is."

“我等了你好久啦，”律师从床上对Ｋ说，他把刚才正借着烛光阅读的一份文件放在桌上，架上眼镜，凝视着Ｋ。Ｋ没有表示歉意，而是说：“我不会占用你很多时间了。”这句话并非道歉，所以律师没有理会，他说：“下次再这样晚，我就不见你了。”“这和我的想法一致，”Ｋ接过话头说。律师疑虑地向他瞥了一眼，说道：“坐下。”“既然你让我坐下，我就坐下，”Ｋ说，他拽过一把椅子，放在床头柜旁边，自己坐下。“我好像听见你把门锁上了，”律师说。“是的，”Ｋ说，“这是因为莱妮的缘故。”他不想庇护任何人；律师接着问：“她又来缠着你啦？”“缠着我？”Ｋ反问道。“是啊，”律师说，他抿着嘴轻声笑了起来，直到咳嗽了一下才止住笑，咳完后又轻声笑了起来。“我想，你一定已经发现她在缠你了，对吗？”律师拍拍Ｋ的手问道；Ｋ刚才心烦意乱，无意中把手放在床头柜上，现在赶紧缩了回来。“你不必太在意，”Ｋ急忙说道。律师接着往下说，“这更好。否则我就要为她道歉了。这是她的怪癣之一，我早就原谅了她，如果你刚才不把门锁上的话，我也不想再提起。我最不愿意向你解释她的这个怪癖，但因为看样子你困惑不解，我认为还是有必要解释一下。她的这个怪癖是，几乎觉得所有的被告都可爱。她追求他们每个人，爱他们每个人，并且显然也被他们所爱；当我同意的时候，她常常把这些事告诉我，让我开心。我并不为此大惊小怪，不过，看来你却着实感到吃惊。如果你在这方面的眼力不错，你也会发现，被告们往往是可爱的。这是一个值得注意的现象，可以说是一条自然规律。一个人被控告以后，他的外貌并不会立即发生明显的、一下子就能发现的变化。这些案子并不像普通刑事案件，大部分被告继续从事日常活动，如果有一个好律师过问的话，他们的利益不会受到多大损害。然而，有经验的人能在人山人海中把所有被告一个不漏地辨认出来。他们是怎么把被告认出来的？你会这么问。我怕我的答复不会使你满意。他们能认出来，因为被告们总是甚为可爱的。不是罪行使他们变得可爱了，因为——我起码作为一个律师，应该如实讲讲我的看法——他们并非全都有罪。也不是尔后的依法施刑事先使他们变得可爱了，因为他们并非都会受到惩处。因此，准是对他们的控告以某种方式使他们变得可爱了。当然有的人比其他人更可爱。不过总的来说，他们都很可爱，连那个名叫勃洛克的可怜虫也一样。”

As the lawyer finished what he was saying, K. was fully in control of himself, he had even nodded conspicuously at his last few words in order to confirm to himself the view he had already formed; that the lawyer was trying to confuse him, as he always did, by making general and irrelevant observations, and thus distract him from the main question of what he was actually doing for K.'s trial. The lawyer must have noticed that K. was offering him more resistance than before, as he became silent, giving K. the chance to speak himself, and then, as K. also remained silent, he asked, "Did you have a particular reason for coming to see me today?" "Yes," said K., putting his hand up to slightly shade his eyes from the light of the candle so that he could see the lawyer better, "I wanted to tell you that I'm withdrawing my representation from you, with immediate effect." "Do I understand you rightly?" asked the lawyer as he half raised himself in his bed and supported himself with one hand on the pillow. "I think you do," said K., sitting stiffly upright as if waiting in ambush. "Well we can certainly discuss this plan of yours," said the lawyer after a pause. "It's not a plan any more," said K. "That may be," said the lawyer, "but we still mustn't rush anything." He used the word 'we', as if he had no intention of letting K. go free, and as if, even if he could no longer represent him, he could still at least continue as his adviser. "Nothing is being rushed," said K., standing slowly up and going behind his chair, "everything has been well thought out and probably even for too long. The decision is final." "Then allow me to say a few words," said the lawyer, throwing the bed cover to one side and sitting on the edge of the bed. His naked, white- haired legs shivered in the cold. He asked K. to pass him a blanket from the couch. K. passed him the blanket and said, "You are running the risk of catching cold for no reason." "The circumstances are important enough," said the lawyer as he wrapped the bed cover around the top half of his body and then the blanket around his legs. "Your uncle is my friend and in the course of time I've become fond of you as well. I admit that quite openly. There's nothing in that for me to be ashamed of." It was very unwelcome for K. to hear the old man speak in this touching way, as it forced him to explain himself more fully, which he would rather have avoided, and he was aware that it also confused him even though it could never make him reverse his decision. "Thank you for feeling so friendly toward me," he said, "and I also realise how deeply involved you've been in my case, as deeply as possible for yourself and to bring as much advantage as possible to me. Nonetheless, I have recently come to the conviction that it is not enough. I would naturally never attempt, considering that you are so much older and more experienced than I am, to convince you of my opinion; if I have ever unintentionally done so then I beg your forgiveness, but, as you have just said yourself, the circumstances are important enough and it is my belief that my trial needs to be approached with much more vigour than has so far been the case." "I see," said the lawyer, "you've become impatient." "I am not impatient," said K., with some irritation and he stopped paying so much attention to his choice of words. "When I first came here with my uncle you probably noticed I wasn't greatly concerned about my case, and if I wasn't reminded of it by force, as it were, I would forget about it completely. But my uncle insisted I should allow you to represent me and I did so as a favour to him. I could have expected the case to be less of a burden than it had been, as the point of taking on a lawyer is that he should take on some of its weight. But what actually happened was the opposite. Before, the trial was never such a worry for me as it has been since you've been representing me. When I was by myself I never did anything about my case, I was hardly aware of it, but then, once there was someone representing me, everything was set for something to happen, I was always, without cease, waiting for you to do something, getting more and more tense, but you did nothing. I did get some information about the court from you that I probably could not have got anywhere else, but that can't be enough when the trial, supposedly in secret, is getting closer and closer to me." K. had pushed the chair away and stood erect, his hands in the pockets of his frock coat. "After a certain point in the proceedings," said the lawyer quietly and calmly, "nothing new of any importance ever happens. So many litigants, at the same stage in their trials, have stood before me just like you are now and spoken in the same way." "Then these other litigants," said K., "have all been right, just as I am. That does not show that I'm not." "I wasn't trying to show that you were mistaken," said the lawyer, "but I wanted to add that I expected better judgement from you than from the others, especially as I've given you more insight into the workings of the court and my own activities than I normally do. And now I'm forced to accept that, despite everything, you have too little trust in me. You don't make it easy for me." How the lawyer was humiliating himself to K.! He was showing no regard for the dignity of his position, which on this point, must have been at its most sensitive. And why did he do that? He did seem to be very busy as a lawyer as well a rich man, neither the loss of income nor the loss of a client could have been of much importance to him in themselves. He was moreover unwell and should have been thinking of passing work on to others. And despite all that he held on tightly to K. Why? Was it something personal for his uncle's sake, or did he really see K.'s case as one that was exceptional and hoped to be able to distinguish himself with it, either for K.'s sake or - and this possibility could never be excluded - for his friends at the court? It was not possible to learn anything by looking at him, even though K. was scrutinizing him quite brazenly. It could almost be supposed he was deliberately hiding his thoughts as he waited to see what effect his words would have. But he clearly deemed K.'s silence to be favourable for himself and he continued, "You will have noticed the size of my office, but that I don't employ any staff to help me. That used to be quite different, there was a time when several young lawyers were working for me but now I work alone. This is partly to do with changes in the way I do business, in that I concentrate nowadays more and more on matters such as your own case, and partly to do with the ever deeper understanding that I acquire from these legal matters. I found that I could never let anyone else deal with this sort of work unless I wanted to harm both the client and the job I had taken on. But the decision to do all the work myself had its obvious result: I was forced to turn almost everyone away who asked me to represent them and could only accept those I was especially interested in - well there are enough creatures who leap at every crumb I throw down, and they're not so very far away. Most importantly, I became ill from over-work. But despite that I don't regret my decision, quite possibly I should have turned more cases away than I did, but it did turn out to be entirely necessary for me to devote myself fully to the cases I did take on, and the successful results showed that it was worth it. I once read a description of the difference between representing someone in ordinary legal matters and in legal matters of this sort, and the writer expressed it very well. This is what he said: some lawyers lead their clients on a thread until judgement is passed, but there are others who immediately lift their clients onto their shoulders and carry them all the way to the judgement and beyond. That's just how it is. But it was quite true when I said I never regret all this work. But if, as in your case, they are so fully misunderstood, well, then I come very close to regretting it." All this talking did more to make K. impatient than to persuade him. From the way the lawyer was speaking, K. thought he could hear what he could expect if he gave in, the delays and excuses would begin again, reports of how the documents were progressing, how the mood of the court officials had improved, as well as all the enormous difficulties - in short all that he had heard so many times before would be brought out again even more fully, he would try to mislead K. with hopes that were never specified and to make him suffer with threats that were never clear. He had to put a stop to that, so he said, "What will you undertake on my behalf if you continue to represent me?" The lawyer quietly accepted even this insulting question, and answered, "I should continue with what I've already been doing for you." "That's just what I thought," said K., "and now you don't need to say another word." "I will make one more attempt," said the lawyer as if whatever had been making K. so annoyed was affecting him too. "You see, I have the impression that you have not only misjudged the legal assistance I have given you but also that that misjudgement has led you to behave in this way, you seem, although you are the accused, to have been treated too well or, to put it a better way, handled with neglect, with apparent neglect. Even that has its reason; it is often better to be in chains than to be free. But I would like to show you how other defendants are treated, perhaps you will succeed in learning something from it. What I will do is I will call Block in, unlock the door and sit down here beside the bedside table." "Be glad to," said K., and did as the lawyer suggested; he was always ready to learn something new. But to make sure of himself for any event he added, "but you do realise that you are no longer to be my lawyer, don't you?" "Yes," said the lawyer. "But you can still change your mind today if you want to." He lay back down in the bed, pulled the quilt up to his chin and turned to face the wall. Then he rang.

律师发表了这番宏论后，Ｋ已经完全恢复了镇静，还点过几次头，好像对律师讲的最后几句话表示完全赞同；不过，他实际上更加认为自己的一贯看法有理，即律师总想讲一些泛泛的大道理，就像这次一样，使他的注意力从主要问题上转移开。这个主要问题是：律师在推动案子的进展方面到底做了多少实际工作？律师住了嘴，给Ｋ一个讲话的机会，他或许已觉察到，Ｋ比往常更咄咄逼人；他看见Ｋ仍旧一言不发，便问道：“你今晚到这儿来，有什么特殊事情吗？”“是的，”Ｋ说，他伸出一只手，遮住烛光，以便把律师看得更清楚些。“我来告诉你，从今天起，我不需要你过问我的案子了。”“我没听错吧？”律师问道，他一只手撑在枕头上，微微欠起身来。“我希望你没听错，”Ｋ说，他坐得笔直，似乎处于戒备状态。“好吧，咱们可以围绕着这个设想商量一下，”律师停了一会儿说。“这不是设想，而是事实，”Ｋ说。“就算是吧，”律师说，“不过咱们用不着这么匆忙。”他用“咱们”这个词，好像不想让Ｋ离开他，如果实在不能当Ｋ的正式代理人，至少可以给Ｋ出几个主意嘛。“这不是一个匆忙作出的决定，”Ｋ说；他慢慢站起来，退到椅子后面，“我是深思熟虑过的，也许考虑的时间已经够久了，这是我的最后决定。”“既然这样，请允许我发表一点看法，”律师说，他踢开鸭绒被，坐在床沿上。他的腿上稀稀地长着白色的汗毛，他由于没穿裤子而冷得直发抖。他请Ｋ把沙发上的毛毯递给他。Ｋ拿起毯子说：“你没有必要这么冻着。”“我有充分的理由这么做，”律师说，他把被子技在肩上，用毯子裹着腿，“你叔叔是我的朋友，我也慢慢喜欢上了你。我公开承认这点，没什么可难为情的。”Ｋ不愿意听这个老头抒发感情，因为这就迫使他不能不把话讲得更明白一些，而他则想避免这么做；另外，他自己承认，律师的话虽然丝毫不能影响他的决定，但也使他很尴尬。“我感谢你的友好态度，”他说，“你竭尽全力，做了你认为对我有利的事，对此我表示欣赏。不过，最近一段时间以来，我慢慢懂得了，光有你的努力是不够的。我当然不应该试图把自己的看法强加给一个比我年长得多、有经验得多的人；如果我无意中似乎正在这样做，那就请你原谅我，可是——用你的话来说——我有充分的理由这么做。我相信，在我的案子中，应该采取比迄今为止强有力得多的措施。”“我理解你，”律师说，“你感到不耐烦了。”“我没有不耐烦，”Ｋ说，他有点恼火，因此不那么注意酌字斟句了，“我第一次跟叔叔一起来拜访你的时候，你就应该发现，我并不把我的案子当作一码事；如果别人不强迫我想起它，可以说，我早就把它忘得一干二净了。但我叔叔坚持要我聘请你做我的代理人；我这么做了，为的是使他高兴。从那时起，我当然希望，这件案子在我心头的压力会减轻一些，因为聘请律师的目的就是要把压力匀一点给律师。然而事实恰恰相反。自从我聘请你做我的代理人以后，这件案子反而使我更加苦恼了。我独自一人时，什么事也不想干，但我几乎毫无忧虑；而请了律师后，我觉得条件已经齐备，只等发生一件什么事了。我日以继夜地等着你的干预，等得我心焦如焚；但你却什么事情也没做。我承认，你给我提供了许多有关法院的情况，这些情况在别处也许是听不到的。可是这种帮助对我来讲远为不够，要知道案子正折磨着我，刺痛着我的心。”Ｋ把椅子推到一边，直挺挺地站着，双手插在上衣口袋里。“当一个人的活动到了一定阶段以后，”律师压低声音、心平气和地说，“就不会出现什么真正新鲜的东西了。我的委托人中，不知有多少也像你这样，当案子到了一定程度后，就到我这里来，站在我面前，脑子里转着同样的念头，嘴里说出同样的话！”“好吧！”Ｋ说，“这么说来，他们也和我一样是事出有因的。这并不能反驳我的论点。”“我不想反驳你的论点，”律师说，“我只想补充一句，我希望你比其他人理智一些，尤其是因为关于法院的活动以及我自己的做法，我对你讲的要比我通常对一般委托人讲的多得多。而我现在却不得不看到，尽管这样，你却对我不够信任。你没有为我创造方便条件。”律师真会在Ｋ面前低声下气！他丝毫不考虑自己的职业尊严；在这种时候，职业尊严最容易受到损害。他为什么要这样呢？如果人们的印象符合事实的话，他是一位阔绰的律师，登门求助的人很多；对他来说，失去Ｋ这么一位委托人，失去Ｋ的酬金，算不了什么。何况他身体有病，自己应该想到，少接受几个委托人是明智的。可是，他却紧紧抓住Ｋ不放！为什么？是因为他和Ｋ的叔叔有私人交情吗？还是因为他真的认为该案很特殊，他可以借为Ｋ辩护或通过讨好法院里的朋友等方式，来提高自己的声望呢？后面这种可能性是不能排除的。Ｋ仔细端详着他的脸，可是却发现不了任何迹象。人们几乎可以认为，律师故意装出一副冷若冰霜的表情，看看他的话会引起什么效果。然而，律师显然把Ｋ的沉默作了太有利于自己的解释，因为他接着说：“你大约已经发现，我的办公室虽然很大，但是我却不在助手。前几年可不是这样，那时有几位学法律的年轻学生在我这里工作；不过现在就剩我一个人了。我作了这种变革，一方面是为了适应我的业务活动的变化，因为我渐渐地只过问像你这样案子了；另一方面是为了适应我心中逐渐形成和巩固的一种信念。我发现，我不能把过问这些案件的责任委托给其他人，否则肯定会使我的委托人蒙受不白之冤，使我已经着手做的事情冒失败的危险。但是，我决定把这种类型的案子全部接受下来以后，自然而然地就产生了这样的后果：我只好拒绝接受大部分委托给我的案子，只接受那些跟我有密切关系的案子。我可以告诉你，就在我家附近便有不少可怜虫，不管我给他们介绍哪个蹩脚的律师，他们都会急忙找上门去的。由于工作过度紧张，我的身体搞垮了。不过我并不为自己的决定感到后悔；我也许应该更果断一些，接受的案子更少一些。我应该专心致志地过问我所接受的那些案子，这种做法经证明是必要的，是有道理的。我有一次曾经读到过一篇出色的文章，介绍两类律师的区别：一类律师只过问一般法律权益问题，另一类律师过问像你们这样的案子。两者的区别在于：前者手里拿着一条细线，牵着他的委托人走，一直到判决作出为止；后者则从一开始就把委托人扛在肩上，背着他走，从不把他放下，一直背到作出判决，甚至背到判决以后。确实如此。但是，如果说我挑起这么重的一付担子而从来也不后悔，那也不大符合事实。比如说，在你的案子中，我的努力完全遭到误解了；这时，只是在这时，我才感到有一点后悔。”这番话并没有使Ｋ心悦诚眼，只是使他更加不耐烦了。律师讲话的口气提醒他，要是他让步的话，会面临什么后果：以前的那些规劝又会重复一遍，律师将再次介绍申诉书的进展情况和某些法官的谦恭温和态度，还会劝他别忘记在这个过程中存在的巨大困难——总之，那套陈词滥调又会搬出来，目的在于用虚幻的希望哄他，或者用同样虚幻的威胁折磨他。不能再这样下去了，应该到此止步，永远终结。于是他说道：“如果我仍旧请你做我的代理人，你打算在我的案子中再采取一些什么措施？”律师对这个挑衅性的问题居然也逆来顺受，他回答道：“我将继续采取我已经采取的那些措施。”“我早就料到了，”Ｋ说，“好吧，再谈下去等于浪费时间。”“我将再试一试，”律师说，好像有过错的是Ｋ，而不是他自己。“我有这么一个感觉：你在评价我的能力时大错特错了，你的一般表现也不对头，这都是由于你虽然是个被告，却受了太好的待遇的缘故。换句话说，或者更确切地说，他们对你疏忽了，这是表面上的疏忽。当然，他们这么做是有道理的：被告戴上镣铐往往比逍遥法外更感到安全。不过，我得让你瞧瞧，其他被告得到的是什么待遇，你也许能从中学到点东西。我现在就把勃洛克叫来；你最好去把门打开，然后坐在这儿，坐在床头柜旁边。”“好吧，”Ｋ说，他执行了这些指示，他一贯愿意学点东西。然而，为了慎重起见，他又问了一句：“你知道我要解聘你吗？”“知道，”律师说，“不过你如果想改变主意的话，还来得及。”他重新躺到床上，盖上毯子，一直盖到下巴上，然后转过身去，脸朝墙躺着。接着他按了铃。

Leni appeared almost the moment he had done so. She looked hurriedly at K. and the lawyer to try and find out what had happened; she seemed to be reassured by the sight of K. sitting calmly at the lawyer's bed. She smiled and nodded to K., K. looked blankly back at her. "Fetch Block," said the lawyer. But instead of going to fetch him, Leni just went to the door and called out, "Block! To the lawyer!" Then, probably because the lawyer had turned his face to the wall and was paying no attention, she slipped in behind K.'s chair. From then on, she bothered him by leaning forward over the back of the chair or, albeit very tenderly and carefully, she would run her hands through his hair and over his cheeks. K. eventually tried to stop her by taking hold of one hand, and after some resistance Leni let him keep hold of it.

莱妮差不多在同一时刻就出现在眼前，她匆匆投过几瞥目光来，想弄明白发生了什么事。她看见Ｋ正安安静静地坐在律师的床边后，似乎放心了。她微笑着朝Ｋ点点头，但是Ｋ只是毫无表情地瞧着她。“把勃洛克领到这儿来，”律师说。但是莱妮却没有去领勃洛克，而是走到门口，喊了一声：“勃洛克！律师叫你！”然后，也许因为律师的脸对着墙，没有注意她，她便乘机悄悄走到Ｋ的背后，靠着椅子背，身子向前倾去，伸出手指，温情脉脉地拨弄着Ｋ的头发，或者抚摸他的太阳穴，使他一直神志恍惚。最后Ｋ不得不抓住她的手，让她别再摸；她反抗了一阵，只好屈服。