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write, so that nothing was heard in the room but the scratching of his pen. “What is that: village secretary?” asked K. after a pause. The landlady answered for Momus, who now that he had introduced himself did not regard it seemly to give such explanations himself: “Herr Momus is Klamm’s secretary in the same sense as any of Klamm’s secretaries, but his official province, and if I’m not mistaken, his official standing”⁠—still writing Momus shook his head decidedly and the landlady amended her phrase⁠—“well then, his official province, but not his official standing, is confined to the village. Herr Momus despatches any clerical work of Klamm’s which may become necessary in the village and as Klamm’s deputy receives any petitions to Klamm which may be sent by the village.” As, still quite unimpressed by these facts, K. looked at the landlady with vacant eyes, she added in a half-embarrassed tone: “That’s how it’s arranged; all the gentlemen in the Castle have their village secretaries.” Momus, who had been listening far more attentively than K. , supplied the landlady with a supplementary fact: “Most of the village secretaries work only for one gentleman, but I work for two, for Klamm and for Vallabene.” “Yes,” went on the landlady, remembering now on her side too, and turning to K. : “Herr Momus works for two gentlemen, for Klamm and for Vallabene, and so is twice a village secretary.” “Actually twice,” said K. nodding to Momus⁠—who now, leaning slightly forward, looked him full in the face⁠—as one nods to a child whom one has just heard being praised. If there was a certain contempt in the gesture, then it was either unobserved or else actually expected. Precisely to K. , it seemed, who was not considered worthy even to be seen in passing by Klamm, these people had described in detail the services of a man out of Klamm’s circle with the unconcealed intention of evoking K. ’s recognition and admiration. And yet K. had no proper appreciation of it; he, who with all his powers strove to get a glimpse of Klamm, valued very little, for example, the post of a Momus who was permitted to live in Klamm’s eye; for it was not Klamm’s environment in itself that seemed to him worth striving for, but rather that he, K. , he only and no one else,