No More Learning

"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.

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. 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. "

"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.

"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. Do 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.