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