“Then what did they miss doing?” asked the landlady. She was lying outstretched on her back now gazing up at the ceiling.
“To ask Klamm,” said K.
“So we’re back at your case again,” said the landlady.
“Or at yours,” said K. “Our affairs run parallel.”
“What do you want from Klamm?” asked the landlady. She had sat up, had shaken out the pillows so as to lean her back against them, and looked K. full in the eyes. “I’ve told you frankly about my experiences, from which you should have been able to learn something. Tell me now as frankly what you want to ask Klamm. I’ve had great trouble in persuading Frieda to go up to her room and stay there, I was afraid you wouldn’t talk freely enough in her presence.”
“I have nothing to hide,” said K. “But first of all I want to draw your attention to something. Klamm forgets immediately, you say. Now in the first place that seems very improbable to me, and secondly it is indemonstrable, obviously nothing more than legend, thought out moreover by the flapperish minds of those who have been in Klamm’s favour. I’m surprised that you believe in such a banal invention.”
“It’s no legend,” said the landlady, “it’s much rather the result of general experience.”